Assad accepts credentials of Tunisian ambassador to Syria
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The Syrian president accepts the credentials of the Tunisian ambassador to Syria nearly a decade after Tunisia and Damascus cut ties.
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In this photo provided by the Tunisian Presidency, Tunisian President Kais Saied, right, shakes hand with Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during the Arab summit, Friday, May 19, 2023. (AP)
President Bashar Al-Assad accepted on Thursday the credentials of Mohamed Al-Mahdhabi, Tunisia's new ambassador to Damascus.
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Minister of Presidential Affairs Mansour Fadlallah Azzam attended the ceremony for the acceptance of the Tunisian Ambassador's credentials.
Syria and Tunisia had announced in April that they would reopen their embassies, nearly a decade after Tunisia and Damascus cut ties.
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Al-Madhabi was formally appointed in April as ambassador to Syria by the President. He serves as the first Tunisian ambassador to Syria since 2011, when the two countries cut diplomatic ties, and acts as Tunisia's plenipotentiary in Syria.
Back in March, Tunisian President Kais Saied pointed out that he plans to restore diplomatic relations with Syria, and elevate them to a higher level.
Tunisia expelled Syria's Ambassador in 2012 over the war in the country. The diplomatic rupture, undertaken when former President Moncef Marzouki was still in office, was strongly criticized by the opposition at the time.
In 2015, Tunisia took a step toward re-establishing relations when it designated a consular representative to Syria to follow the situation of Tunisians in the war-torn country.
Seeking to track down more than 3,000 extremist Tunisian fighters fighting alongside terrorist organizations in Syria, Tunisia then reestablished a limited diplomatic mission to Syria in 2017.
