29-03-2024 02:02 AM Jerusalem Timing

French President, PM Slam Lawmakers’ Meeting with Assad

French President, PM Slam Lawmakers’ Meeting with Assad

French President and PM condemned on Thursday a group of French lawmakers for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a day earlier in Damascus.

French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls condemned on Thursday a group of French lawmakers for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a day earlier in Damascus.

"I condemn this initiative. I condemn it because French lawmakers have taken it upon themselves to meet with a dictator who is the cause of one of the worst civil wars of recent years," Hollande told reporters in the Philippines.French President Froncois Hoolande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls

For his part, Valls "condemned with the greatest strength" a decision by the lawmakers to meet Assad.

"I want to condemn this initiative with the greatest strength," Valls told TV station BFMTV.

"For parliamentarians to go without warning to meet a butcher.... I think it was a moral failing."

France cut diplomatic ties with Syria in 2012 and supports the armed opposition terrorists, seeking the removal of Assad from power.

Earlier on Wednesday, a French delegation consisting of four lawmakers visited Damaascus and met with President Assad and other officials.
The delegation was headed by Senate member, Head of the Senate’s French-Syrian Friendship Committee Jean-Pierre Vial.

One of the lawmakers, Jacques Myard told al-Manar that President Bashar al-Assad is a part of the solution in Syria.
“International community should deal with President Assad as a part of the political solution in Syria,” the French MP told al-Manar as he arrived in Beirut on Wednesday.