The United Arab Emirates has dispatched an ambassador to Damascus for the first time since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, Syria’s state media reported, in a new signal of Syria’s warming ties with the Arab region.
Incoming Emirati envoy Hassan Al Shehi presented his credentials to Syria’s foreign affair minister Faysal Al Meqdad at the foreign ministry on Tuesday.
Syria has been slowly re-establishing diplomatic ties with the Arab region in recent years, after many recalled their envoys and closed embassies in reaction to President Bashar Al Assad’s crackdown on protests against him in 2011.
But Abu Dhabi has rebuilt ties with Damascus in recent years. Assad visited the UAE in 2022 - his first trip to an Arab state since the civil war erupted - and again in 2023 after a devastating earthquake killed thousands in Syria.
The tragedy cleared the way for a thaw in Arab ties with Assad and months later the Arab League reversed its more than decade-long suspension of Syria’s membership.
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