DUBAI — Qatar has no plans to normalize ties with Syria, the Gulf state’s foreign minister said, after Syrian President
Bashar Al-Assad won a fourth term in office last week in an election derided by the opposition and the West as a farce.
اضافة اعلان
Qatar was among several regional states including Saudi Arabia that backed rebels in Syria’s decade-old civil war. Some like the
United Arab Emirates have sought to normalize ties after Assad regained control of most of the country.
“So far we see nothing on the horizon for a political solution acceptable to the Syrian people ... the (regime’s) approach and conduct has not changed,” Qatari Foreign Minister
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told UK-based Al Araby television in an interview aired on Friday.
“There is no motivation for us to reestablish ties with the Syrian regime at this time,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “The Syrian regime is committing crimes against its people.”
Syria’s government said Wednesday’s election shows the country is functioning normally despite the war which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced 11 million.
Gulf states downgraded or shut missions in Damascus in 2012 over attacks by the government on protests at the start of the conflict.
The UAE reopened its mission to Damascus in late 2018 in a bid to counter the influence of non-Arab actors.
The UAE has a charge d’affaires in Syria. Oman, one of the rare Arab countries that maintained diplomatic ties with Damascus, sent an ambassador in 2020.
The Qatari minister, who visited Libya last week, said Doha plans to reopen its diplomatic mission in Tripoli soon.
The embassy was closed in 2014 when many foreign missions in the Libyan capital shut down as the country split.
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