The UK government has spoken out about a meeting attended by Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour and Syrian president Bashar-al-Assad.
Assad has been responsible for a brutal civil war in Syria since 2011 that has seen at least 350,000 people killed, including thousands of women and children. Since the conflict started, Assad has only previously left the country to visit allies in Russia and Iran as most of the international community turned their backs on the leader.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), where City owner Mansour is deputy prime minister, had previously backed attempts to overthrow Assad's regime. However, the leader was welcomed in Dubai and Abu Dhabi last week in a suggestion that relations could be improving between the two states.
