The intelligence services of some Western countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad have visited Damascus to discuss security cooperation with his government, Syria’s deputy foreign minister confirmed in remarks broadcast on Wednesday.
“I will not specify [which countries] but many of them have visited Damascus, yes,” the deputy minister, Faisal Mekdad, said in an interview with the BBC.
Mekdad’s remarks followed a report in The Wall Street Journal claiming that European intelligence agencies have met covertly with Assad delegates to share information on European jihadists operating in Syria, in the first such meeting since withdrawing their ambassadors when the crisis began.