Amid thaw in ties, Syria’s Assad lands in UAE for official visit

By AP 19 March 2023, 2:08 pm

Edit

Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, waves to his supporters at a polling station during the Presidential elections in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, May 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, file)

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives in the United Arab Emirates, his first visit to the wealthy Gulf country since the devastating earthquake that struck his country and Turkey last month.

Assad, who arrives with his wife, Asma, and a delegation of Syrian officials, is received by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to a statement from Assad’s office.

Sheikh Mohammed says in a statement on Twitter that the two “held constructive talks aimed at developing relations between our two countries.”

The visit marks a continuation in the ongoing thaw of relations between Syria and other Arab countries, more than a decade after the 22-member Arab League suspended Damascus’s membership over Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters and later on civilians during the war.