Syria ministers visit Saudi Arabia in first trip abroad since fall of Bashar al-Assad
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Syria's newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani (left) being welcomed to Saudi Arabia by Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Elkhereiji.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
CAIRO – Syria’s foreign and defence ministers met Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman in Riyadh on Jan 2, in a landmark first visit abroad by members of the new Syrian administration less than a month after it took power.
Prince Salman said in a post on X that he had discussed with Syria’s new Foreign Minister, Mr Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, how best to support Syria’s political transition.
The meeting also included Syria’s intelligence chief.
Since ousting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad
HTS was Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate until it broke off ties in 2016.
Saudi Arabia backed the rebels who fought Mr Assad at the onset of the Syrian civil war.
More recently, Riyadh had embarked on a path of normalising ties with the Assad government, paving the way for Syria to return to the Arab League in 2023, in an effort to reduce Iranian influence in the country and to stem the flow of drugs, including the methamphetamine captagon. REUTERS
