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Zelenskiy Says Ukraine is Preparing to Resume Diplomatic Ties with Syria

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks as he attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File Photo
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks as he attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File Photo
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Zelenskiy Says Ukraine is Preparing to Resume Diplomatic Ties with Syria

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks as he attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File Photo
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks as he attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File Photo

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he was preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria, less than a month after the overthrow of the Russia-backed government in Damascus.
Zelenskiy spoke after a visit to Syria by his Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, and by Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval who said earlier Ukraine had already sent a shipment of food aid.
"We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations," Zelenskiy said, Reuters reported.
Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Syria in June 2022 after the then government in Damascus said it recognized the "independence" of the Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Since opposition factions overthrew Syria's President Bashar al-Assad last month, Ukraine has been moving to build ties with the new Islamist rulers there. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, was a staunch ally of Assad and has given him political asylum.
Kyiv also planned to increase trade with Lebanon and at least double its agriculture exports from $400 million, Zelenskiy added.
Zelenskiy previously said that Ukraine would send 500 metric tons of wheat flour to Syria under Kyiv's humanitarian "Grain from Ukraine" initiative in cooperation with the UN World Food Program.
The delivery would provide resources for around 167,000 Syrians for a month, Koval said in a televised interview.
He added that the shipment will not be the last and that Syria was also interested in oil, sugar and meat deliveries.
"Today, at the level of government dialogue, we clearly understand that support should be sustainable and not a one-off, but rather long-lasting and predictable," Koval said.
Moscow has also said it is in contact with the new administration in Damascus, including over the fate of Russian military facilities in Syria.

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China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
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China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Chinese health authorities said on Thursday they had detected the new mutated mpox strain clade Ib as the viral infection spreads to more countries after the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency last year.
China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found a cluster outbreak of the Ib subclade that started with the infection a foreigner who has a history of travel and residence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Reuters reported.
Four further cases have been found in people infected after close contact with the foreigner. The patients' symptoms are mild and include skin rash and blisters.
Mpox spreads through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body. Although usually mild, it can be fatal in rare cases.
WHO last August declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that spread to neighboring countries.
The outbreak in DRC began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade I. But the clade Ib variant appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact.
The variant has spread from DRC to neighboring countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, triggering the emergency declaration from the WHO.
China said in August last year it would monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox.
The country's National Health Commission said mpox would be managed as a Category B infectious disease, enabling officials to take emergency measures such as restricting gatherings, suspending work and school, and sealing off areas when there is an outbreak of a disease.