23 October 2022; MEMO: The United States has denounced the restoration of ties between the Syrian regime and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
On Wednesday, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad received a delegation from Hamas, cementing the reconciliation between the two last month. It marked a decade since the group cut ties with the Syrian regime in 2012, following Syrian forces' brutal suppression of peaceful protests during the outbreak of the Syrian uprising.
Speaking to reporters the next day, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that "The Assad regime's outreach to this terrorist organization only reinforces for us its isolation."
Price stated that the reconciliation "harms the interests of the Palestinian people and it undercuts global efforts to counterterrorism in the region and beyond."
He also reiterated Washington's refusal to normalise relations with Damascus, and its rejection of "any support to rehabilitate the Assad regime, particularly from designated terrorist organizations like Hamas."
