2023-05-15 17:51:43
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been isolated for years, has received an invitation to the next UN world climate conference in November in Dubai. The President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Said Al Nahjan, invited Assad, the Syrian state agency Sana reported on Monday. The conference is likely to be Assad’s first major meeting since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, which will also be attended by many Western heads of state and government.
The Emirates have been promoting rapprochement with Assad for some time. Following Syria’s recent readmission to the Arab League, Assad is also expected to attend the organization’s summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday. For the West, talks with Assad are taboo. Twelve years ago, the EU imposed extensive sanctions. These were in response to the Assad government’s violent repression of the civilian population.
The UN world climate conference COP28 opens on November 30 in the Emirati metropolis of Dubai. At the last COP27 conference in Egypt, Syria took part with a 14-strong delegation, including Syrian Environment Minister Hussein Makhlouf and several Syrian MPs. In addition, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen also traveled.
At the world climate conference, representatives from around 200 countries discuss, among other things, how the internationally agreed 1.5 degree target can still be achieved and how the worst consequences of the climate crisis can be averted.
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