Egypt’s top diplomat in Damascus, meets with Syria’s Assad

By ALBERT AJI and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Egypt’s foreign minister has met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus and promised to deliver more aid to the quake-hit country. Sameh Shoukry is Egypt’s most senior official to visit Syria since 2011. His visit on Monday comes a day after Cairo’s parliament speaker and top Arab lawmakers visited Assad in a push to end Syria’s political isolation. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 after Assad’s government cracked down brutally on mass protests against his rule — an uprising that quickly descended into a brutal civil war. After this month’s massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria, many in the Mideast are eager to bring Syria back into the fold of Arab nations.