Republican congress members pay an unofficial visit to Syria as US mulls sanctions relief

Damascus, Syria: two Republican members of the United States Congress were in the Syrian capital on Friday in an unofficial visit organized by a non-profit organization Syria-American, the first by US legislators since the fall of former Syrian Syrian Assad. Also on Friday, the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, with the Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa on his first visit from the fall of Assad and since the beginning of the Syrian uprising turned into a civil war in 2011.