US will not normalise or upgrade diplomatic ties with Syria | Al Jazeera

The United States has no plans to “normalise or upgrade” diplomatic relations with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and also does not encourage others to do so, a US State Department spokesperson has said.

The comments came in response to questions from the Reuters news agency on whether Washington was encouraging and supporting a rapprochement between Jordan and Syria after Jordan fully reopened its main border crossing with Syria on Wednesday.

The move was to boost the countries’ struggling economies and reinforce a push by Arab states to reintegrate Syria after it was shunned during the civil war.

“The United States will not normalise or upgrade our diplomatic relations with the Assad regime nor do we encourage others to do so, given the atrocities inflicted by the Assad regime on the Syrian people,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email on Wednesday.

“Assad has regained no legitimacy in our eyes, and there is no question of the US normalising relations with his government at this time.”