The embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has reopened its doors in the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic, Damascus, after 12 years of severed ties, as the two seek to restore bilateral relations.

Speaking at a ceremony held by the embassy in Damascus on Monday, the Saudi Charge d’affaires, Abdullah al-Haris, vowed to promote Damascus-Riyadh ties and considered the reopening of the embassy in Damascus a significant moment in the history of ties between the two countries.

Syria’s Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Raad told SANA that the reopening of the Saudi embassy in Damascus and the Syrian embassy in Riyadh last October will help the two countries bolster their bilateral relations and improve joint Arab initiatives for the benefit of the region's people.

The two countries severed ties at the start of the war on Syria as the West sought, through regional proxies, to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However, for over a year now, regional Arab states have sought to mend ties with Syria after the government succeeded in maintaining legitimacy and regained the majority of its territories.

Syria receives first UAE ambassador since 2011

Earlier, in January 2024, UAE ambassador Hassan Ahmed al-Shahi arrived in Syria to become the first ambassador of his country to Syria since 2011.

According to the Syrian newspaper al-Watan, al-Shahi will head the Emirati diplomatic mission after nearly 13 years without an ambassador in Damascus since the start of the war on Syria.

The Charge d'Affaires, Counselor Abdul Hakim al-Nuaimi, had been handling the diplomacy between the two countries since the reopening of the embassy in Damascus.

Al-Shahi served as the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Iraq since 2015, and before that, he was the ambassador to his country in Sudan. In December 2018, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus after seven years of severed ties between the two countries.

Relations have long been strained between Damascus and Abu Dhabi as the latter recalled its ambassador from Syria in the wake of the war waged on it in 2011. However, a rapprochement saw relations improving between the two.

In early June 2023, it was reported that US legislators were mulling tightening sanctions on Syria in a bid to undermine the efforts it has made as part of the reconciliation process underway with numerous Arab states, which later culminated in the country returning to the Arab League after more than a decade of being outside of it.

This came in the wake of an exchange of visits between the two parties, wherein UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Syria in early February, and met with Al-Assad in the first visit by a prominent foreign official in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that afflicted both Syria and Turkiye.

A month later, al-Assad arrived in the UAE for an official visit and met with his Emirati counterpart Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

The visit marked an important step toward building an all-round, high-level, and robust relationship between Syria and other Arab countries, more than a decade after Damascus' membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended.

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