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.
Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said Friday that Damascus is in negotiations with Israel on a possible security agreement that could see Israeli troops withdraw from areas they have occupied since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last December.
Syrian security forces stormed the rundown Damascus suburb in late August, toting guns, swords and eviction orders. In their wake, they left the district's homes spray-painted with big black "X"s and "O"s: marking who could stay and who must go.
The State of Qatar and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have dispatched a new humanitarian aid shipment to Syria.
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