Top UAE diplomat returns to Syria as thaw in relations continues

Beirut—— The top diplomat of the United Arab Emirates met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday, his second visit to Damascus, as relations between the two countries continued to dwindle.

According to a statement from Assad’s office, he and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan discussed strengthening economic ties between the two countries. It quoted Assad as saying that the restoration of relations between the two countries was in the interest of regional stability.

They also discussed developments in Syria and the region, with Sheikh Abdullah expressing support for a political solution to ending the conflict, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency said. The UAE foreign minister was joined by a delegation of economic and security officials.

This is Sheikh Abdullah’s second visit to Syria since his first visit to the war-torn country in November 2021. It also comes 10 months after Assad made a rare visit to the United Arab Emirates – his first visit in several years to countries other than allies Russia and Iran. The UAE reopened its embassy in Syria in 2018.

Syria was expelled from the Arab League after an uprising that turned into conflict in 2011 and faced resistance from neighboring countries. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the war, and half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced. Large swathes of Syria have been destroyed and reconstruction will cost tens of billions of dollars.

With the war largely deadlocked in recent years, Arab states are moving closer to restoring ties with the Syrian leader after Assad regained control of much of Syria with military assistance from Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. close.

In June, Bahrain appointed its entire diplomatic mission in Syria in more than a decade, while Algeria’s top diplomat, visiting Damascus last July, said his country was coordinating with other Arab states to restore Syria’s Arab League membership. In October 2021, Assad also spoke on the phone with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who hosts Western-backed opposition groups and hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the war.