Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea blasted Monday the meeting between a delegation of Arab parliamentary leaders and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as “shameful.”
“It is truly shameful to see a delegation of Arab parliamentarians taking advantage of the tragic earthquake to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” Geagea said.
On Sunday, a delegation of Arab parliamentary leaders met with Assad in Damascus .
The delegation included lawmakers from nine Arab countries: Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Libya, Egypt, UAE, Oman and Lebanon.
“We cannot do without Syria and Syria cannot do without its Arab environment, which we hope it can return to,” said Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi.
Assad has been politically isolated in the region since the start of the 12-year civil war in Syria.
The Cairo-based Arab League suspended Syria in 2011 and some other Arab countries have severed ties with it.
But since the earthquake, the Syrian president has received calls and aid from Arab leaders, a momentum analysts say he could leverage to bolster regional support.
Geagea said that Assad has killed many more civilians than the earthquake, adding that the people of Syria have and will always belong to the Arab fold, while the Syrian authority, headed by al-Assad, “belongs to the Iranian fold and can never return.”
While the most recent earthquake has killed about 5800 people in Syria , nearly half a million were killed in the Syrian civil war
“Whoever normalizes with this authority is normalizing with Iran and not with the Syrian people,” Geagea said.
Syria is currently controlled by Iran, Russia and Turkey
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