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DAMASCUS: Syria’s foreign minister arrived in Washington on Thursday, the first official visit at that level in more than 25 years as the US makes a pro-Damascus policy push, lifting sanctions and mediating between the new Islamist rulers and Israel. Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani will meet US lawmakers to discuss the lifting of remaining US sanctions on his country, Senator Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying by Axios. Two sources familiar with the trip confirmed the visit to Reuters.
It comes after some senior US diplomats focused on Syria were abruptly let go from their posts amid Washington’s pivot, as the US seeks to integrate its longtime Syrian Kurdish allies with the central administration of President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
The United States has also been mediating between Israel and Syria. Sharaa, who is due to visit New York next week for the UN General Assembly, said negotiations to reach a security pact with Israel could yield results “in the coming days.”
The United States had placed crippling sanctions on Syria since 2011 after former President Bashar Assad, an ally of Iran and Russia, cracked down protests against him that triggered an almost 14-year civil war.
After he was toppled by Sharaa’s forces in a quick sweep in December, Washington and Damascus have been working to warm up ties, with US President Donald Trump announcing that he would move to lift the sanctions after meeting Sharaa in May.

MADRID: Spain will probe “human rights violations in Gaza” to assist the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for top Israeli officials over alleged war crimes, the attorney general said Thursday.
The announcement marks another step by Spain, a virulent critic of the devastating Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory, to lead international action over the conflict, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in 2023.
Spain’s top prosecutor, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, has “issued a decree to create a working team tasked with investigating violations of international human rights law in Gaza,” his office said in a statement.
The investigative team’s mission will be to “gather evidence and make it available to the competent body, thereby fulfilling Spain’s obligations regarding international cooperation and human rights,” it said.
“Faced with the current situation in the Palestinian territories, all evidence, direct or indirect, that can be gathered in our country” on “crimes committed” in Gaza “must be included” for potential use in the ICC case, it added in the decree.
The statement mentioned a Spanish police report which recorded “acts that could constitute crimes against the international community” perpetrated by the Israeli army in Gaza.
The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Spain has also joined a case before another world court, the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Both Hague-based courts have faced fierce criticism from Israel and its allies over the cases.
In February, the United States slapped sanctions on the ICC, saying it had “abused its power” with the Netanyahu arrest warrant.
Israel has challenged the 125-member state ICC’s jurisdiction in the case.
Spanish-Israeli relations have soured over the conflict, with Israel withdrawing its ambassador to Madrid last year after Spain recognized a Palestinian state.
Last week, Spain recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv after Israel’s foreign minister accused the government of antisemitism.
The row followed measures announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez which he said aimed to “stop the genocide in Gaza.”