Egypt speaker, Arab lawmakers visit Syrian President Assad

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Egypt’s parliament speaker is heading a Mideast delegation on a visit to Syria for talks with President Bashar Assad. Sunday’s visit follows a mini-summit in Baghdad the previous day that affirmed the Arab League’s intentions of bringing Syria back into the region’s fold. Speaker Hanafy el-Gebaly is the most senior Egyptian official to visit Syria in over a decade, after most Arab countries cut ties with Assad. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011, when an uprising against Assad’s rule descended into a brutal civil war. Palestinian and Lebanese lawmakers accompanied el-Gebaly on the visit. They were to be joined by other Arab lawmakers later in the day.