US Congressman Abraham Hamadeh has held talks with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani in Damascus after flying in directly from Israel, a move considered a notable development.
Hamadeh, a Republican who represents Arizona's 8th District in the US Congress, described his six-hour visit to Damascus on Sunday as a "historic step", being the first time in decades that an American official travelled directly from Tel Aviv to Damascus.
According to a statement issued by Hamadeh, he discussed with Al-Sharaa the return of the remains of humanitarian activist Kayla Mueller, who was kidnapped by Islamic State group in 2013, to her family in Arizona, the need to establish a safe humanitarian corridor to deliver medical and humanitarian aid to Suweida province, and potential Syrian normalisation of ties with Israel and joining the Abraham Accords.
Hamadeh stressed during the meeting the need to "correct Syria's course in light of recent tragic events", in what appeared to be a reference to recent clashes between Syrian government forces and Druze militias that left over 1,000 people dead.
He said that building a unified state "requires providing peace and security for all citizens, including Christians, Druze, Kurds, Alawites, and other communities", affirming that this was "the only way to build a new Syria that reflects its ethnic and religious mosaic".
The statement said that Congressman Hamadeh, who is of Syrian and partly Druze ancestry, supported President Donald Trump's decision to lift some sanctions in order to help the Syrian people and their new government rebuild their country, but believes Congress must play a key role in this process to ensure the Syrian government upholds its commitments to the United States.
The statement added that "as a result, Congressman Hamadeh and his team have been engaged in interagency efforts to determine what is - and is not - happening on the ground in Syria amid the ongoing conflict".
Hamadeh expressed his "gratitude and support for the strong leadership of US Ambassador and Special Envoy Thomas Barrack in the region," apparently signalling that he does not intend to compete with Barrack's efforts there.
Syrian Finance Minister Mohammad Yasser Barniyah said in a comment on LinkedIn that he met with Hamadeh and discussed economic and financial relations between Syria and the United States, as well as ongoing reforms in Syria’s financial sector. They also reviewed "areas of future cooperation", with Barniyah expressing optimism about the future of bilateral relations.
A well-informed source in Damascus told The New Arab's Arabic edition that Syrian businessman Jihad Salqini, a member of the US-Syria Business Council, organised Hamadeh's visit to Syria - the first of its kind since 1974, when then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shuttled directly between Tel Aviv and Damascus as part of ceasefire negotiations following the October 1973 war.
Hamadeh is a former US Army officer and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and close to President Trump.
He was on a weeklong visit to Israel, during which he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers, as well as Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel and a figure close to the Israeli establishment.