Syrian interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa met on Saturday in Damascus with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, John X Yazigi, according to a statement posted by the presidency on Telegram.
Ahmad al-Sharaa and John X Yazigi © X
Syrian interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa met on Saturday in Damascus with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, John X Yazigi, according to a statement posted by the presidency on Telegram.
The two discussed the role of the Church in strengthening national unity and preserving civil peace in Syria, the statement said.
The meeting comes nearly two months after a deadly bombing targeted the Greek Orthodox Saint Elias Church in Damascus on June 22, killing 25 people and injuring 63.
The attack was later claimed by a little-known Syrian jihadist group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna (“Brigade of the Supporters of the Sunnis”).
Syrian authorities, however, blamed the Islamic State for the bombing.
The Christian community of Damascus, still mourning a suicide bombing that killed 25 people in June, is celebrating Christmas under heavy security as uncertainty looms over Syria’s political future.
Syria's foreign and defence ministers met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss expanding military, political and economic cooperation, with a focus on strategic collaboration in defence industries, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the military would never fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip for security reasons and that a civilian-military army unit would be established in the Palestinian enclave.
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