FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Virginia Sen. Richard Black in Syria: ‘Certain Party’ Wants to Continue the War
Sept. 3, 2018 (EIRNS)—Virginia State Senator (and now VIPS member) Richard Black (R) was again in Syria on Sept. 2, where he met with President Assad’s Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban. At a media availability after their meeting, Black said the U.S. should work with Syria to reclaim all its territory, and that Syrians have a right to live in peace. Black’s visit and statements received similar coverage in the Syria Times and Iranian state media, IRNA, which cited among its sources Syria’s official SANA news agency.
“Black called on Western states to put an end to the economic sanctions imposed on Syria, holding the consecutive U.S. administrations responsible for the chaos in the Middle East and the destruction in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen.”
Black also said that he
“hoped that U.S. foreign policy would shift from harming the Middle East to helping it, and that it would use more diplomacy and less military force,”
according to IRNA’s paraphrase.
“The Senator said he feels safe among Syrians, as long as the extremists—who are recruited from more than 100 countries, trained, funded, then set loose by Western intelligence agencies to spread terrorism—are being eliminated,”
wrote IRNA.
Like Black, Shaaban explained the universal nature of terrorism, and that it must be fought from that standpoint. Shaaban also said that she was glad to meet with Black, calling him a defender of Syrian sovereignty.
