Lebanese-Syrian committee meets Al-Assad in solidarity visit to Syria

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Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad held a meeting with members of the Lebanese-Syrian Parliamentary Brotherhood and Friendship Committee who landed in Syria Sunday morning on a solidarity visit after the powerful earthquake that hit the country on February 6.

President Al-Assad said that his country appreciates Lebanon’s humanitarian response and support in offering emergency relief to the earthquake-affected people. He also appreciated the aid coming from various bodies via Lebanon’s airport and ports.

The Syrian President considered that the relationship between the two countries is primarily a brotherly one, and this is the basis on which official policies should be formulated to serve the common interests and address the challenges the Lebanese and Syrian peoples face.

For their part, the committee members noted that the purpose of their visit is to show their firm support and the deep solidarity between the two peoples.

During the meeting, Al-Assad and the committee members also discussed ways to boost bilateral ties in all areas to serve the interest of both peoples.

It is worth noting that two days after the earthquake, Al-Assad received an official Lebanese delegation headed by caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib, who offered the "condolences and support of Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and all his ministers for Syria."

Read: Syrian President thanks countries that aided Syria after quake

This visit, according to the delegation, came because the Lebanese people stand in solidarity with their brothers in Syria, grieving with them and offering them their support throughout this ordeal.

Moreover, the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, revealed on February 8 that it sent convoys of humanitarian aid to earthquake-affected areas in Syria, and Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said that US sanctions, backed by most Arab countries, are hindering relief and rescue operations, adding that the coercive measures violate fundamental humanitarian principles.

Days later, Hezbollah's Rouhama convoy arrived in Latakia, and the head of the Hezbollah Executive Council, Hashim Safi Al-Din, announced sending the first batch of aid to Latakia, to be followed by other convoys to Aleppo and other Syrian regions.

Since the devastating earthquake struck northern Syria on February 6, humanitarian aid planes and rescue and relief teams continued to arrive in Syria, from multiple countries, especially from Tunisia, Algeria, the UAE, China, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and others.

In the meantime, the US and European sanctions imposed on Syria hindered humanitarian response to the disaster, which caused massive destruction and claimed the lives of thousands. In the face of an international rush to send aid to the stricken areas in Turkey, the same international enthusiasm was absent in defying the US sanctions and pulling the Syrians out from under the rubble of the siege.