PARIS: A high-ranking member of President Jacques Chirac’s political party, UMP, Jacques Myard, who was sent to Damascus on behalf of the foreign relations committee of the French Parliament, has returned from his trip saying that he was surprised to see that France continued to play a major role in Syrian political life.

“Basher El Assad, with whom I was able to meet at length, impressed me with his opening towards the West, notably Europe and above all France, but also with his willingness to improve the situation of civil liberties in his country,” he said.

“Consequently, I’m convinced that France has a major role to play in the future of Syria, and that now is the time for the French to profit from a new situation that has come about in Syrian political life with the arrival of the American forces next door in Iraq.”

Mr Myard said that “now’s the time for France to become more involved in the modernization of the Syrian state, also take up Syria’s willingness to open itself up to the world, and resolving the crisis in Middle East.”

“Just as France has never been so popular in Syria, the image of the US has never been so low in the Syrian point of view, and this largely because of the brutality that Washington has exercised in Iraq.”