Syrian delegation visits Saudi Arabia for first foreign trip since ousting of Bashar al-Assad

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A senior Syrian delegation led by Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani has arrived in Riyadh on its first official trip abroad since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad by rebels last month.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the group, including Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Kasra and Intelligence Chief Anas Khattab, was welcomed by the Kingdom’s Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Elkherezi at Riyadh airport late on Wednesday.

“With this first visit in the history of free Syria, we aspire to open a new and bright page in Syrian-Saudi relations, befitting the long shared history between the two countries,” Shaibani said at X.

Saudi Arabia Assad was welcomed on several occasions, re-engaging with the dictator for the first time since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. But the kingdom and other Gulf states moved quickly to embrace the new authorities, dominated by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, after they seized Damascus on December 8.

Arab countries are concerned about further conflict and political instability in the region following the devastation war in gaza and Lebanon, while the Gulf states are also interested in reducing the smuggling of captagon and other illicit drugs originating in Syria.

The visit comes at an official invitation from the kingdom as Saudi Arabia sends three plane loads of humanitarian aid to Syria, including food, shelter and medical supplies.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Abdullah Al-Yahia and Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jassem Al-Budaiwi met with Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed Al-Shara on Monday.

Yahya called on the international community to reconsider the sanctions imposed on Syria, saying Gulf countries are working urgently to send more aid to Syria.

The visit “shows our commitment to opening a new page of constructive regional cooperation . . . and we also value the response of the new Syrian administration to these efforts”, Yahya told a news conference in Damascus.

HTS has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Nations and others, although Washington and other Western capitals have taken tentative steps to engage with the new regime.

Qatar, which has previously resisted efforts to rehabilitate the Assad regime and return it to the Arab fold, also sent a high-level delegation to Syria last week.

Syria’s new leader Shara, who previously used the name Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel in an interview last week that Saudi Arabia “will definitely play a big role in Syria’s future”.

He added that there was “a big investment opportunity” as the country looked to rebuild its economy after more than a decade of devastating civil war.

In the same interview, he gave the first indication of a possible timeline for the stages of the country’s political transition, saying it would take three years to draft a new constitution and up to four years to hold its first elections.