Syrian president meets a US Congress member on an unofficial visit to Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s president on Saturday received a Republican member of Congress in the first visit to the country by American legislators since the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad in December.

State news agency SANA did not give details about the meeting between President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida in the capital Damascus. It said the meeting was attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, and comes in the wake of calls by Syria's new rulers for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other Western nations early in the conflict.

Since arriving in Syria on an unofficial visit Friday, Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Mills toured parts of Damascus, including the old quarter of the city as well as one of the oldest synagogues in the world that was badly damaged and looted during the country’s 14-year conflict that killed half a million people.

On Saturday, Stutzman visited the country’s notorious Saydnaya Prison near Damascus, where tens of thousands of people were subjected to killings and torture during the 54-year rule of the Assad family.

Al-Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group led the offensive that captured Damascus in early December, forcing Assad and his family to flee to his ally Russia, where he was given asylum.

Days after Assad was removed from power, the then-Biden administration decided not to pursue a $10 million reward it had offered for the capture of al-Sharaa, a former leader of al-Qaida’s branch in Syria. The announcement in December followed a meeting between al-Sharaa and then top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first U.S. diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster.

The Trump administration has yet to officially recognize the current Syrian government and Washington has not yet lifted harsh sanctions that were imposed during Assad’s rule.

After the fall of Assad, the U.S. eased some restrictions on Syria to allow the entry of humanitarian aid. The U.S. Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

Syrian officials have been calling for the lifting of Western sanctions but the U.S. administration has been demanding steps by the country’s new authorities including protecting the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.

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