US diplomacy reiterated on Tuesday that it rejects any normalization of relations with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, restore contacts with Damascus after the devastating earthquake on the 6th February.

“We will not normalize our relations with the Assad regime, nor will we encourage others to do so, in the absence of genuine progress toward a political settlement” of the armed conflict in Syria, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said during the briefing of the accredited editors.

“We continue to urge anyone who has contacts with Damascus to seriously consider how they can help Syrians in need, wherever they live,” he added.

The UAE president met his Syrian counterpart on Sunday and told him it was time for Damascus to rejoin the Arab world during their talks in Abu Dhabi, according to state media.

It was the Syrian president’s second visit to a Gulf state after the February earthquake, which caused massive destruction in Turkey and Syria.

The Syrian president, whose country was kicked out of the Arab League at the end of 2011, visited the Sultanate of Oman on February 20.

Mr Assad also traveled to Moscow, where he was received by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The Syrian leader remains isolated on the international diplomatic scene after the bloody crackdown on mass protests in 2011 that sparked the civil war. But after the February earthquake, the contacts of Arab states with Damascus multiplied, and they also sent humanitarian aid.