– Riyadh and Damascus discuss resuming consular services
Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties in 2012 with Syria, where it supported rebels early in the war.
Saudi Arabia and Syria are holding talks on resuming their consular services, more than a decade following the kingdom severed ties with President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Saudi state media said on Thursday. .
Bashar al-Assad had been diplomatically isolated since the 2011 crackdown on a popular uprising that escalated into war. Since the earthquake in Syria on February 6, Arab countries have intensified their contacts and sent aid to Damascus.
After Iran
“Discussions are underway between officials of the kingdom and their counterparts in Syria on a resumption of consular services” between the two countries, the Al-Ekhbariya channel said Thursday evening, quoting an official from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This announcement comes regarding two weeks following that of the restoration of ties between the two rival powers in the Middle East: Iran, a great ally of Damascus, and Saudi Arabia, which had severed their diplomatic ties in 2016. The Saudi kingdom had severed ties in 2012 with Syria where he supported rebels at the start of the war.
But since the February 6 earthquake, Riyadh has sent aid to affected populations in Syria, both in areas under government control and in rebel areas. Riyadh had so far avoided any direct contact with the government of Bashar el-Assad, preferring to coordinate with the Syrian Red Crescent for the distribution of aid intended for areas under Damascus control.
«Consensus»
In February, a Saudi plane loaded with humanitarian aid landed in Aleppo, the country’s second city, hard hit by the earthquake which also hit neighboring Turkey. It was the first Saudi plane to land in Syria since the start of the war. The Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal ben Farhane, had then deemed necessary a new approach vis-à-vis Syria, involving negotiations with Damascus to deal with humanitarian crises.
At the end of 2018, the Emirates reopened their embassy in Damascus, and Bashar al-Assad made his first visit to an Arab country in Abu Dhabi in March 2022. Visiting Abu Dhabi once more since March 19, the President of the Arab Emirates united told him that it was time for Damascus to return to Arab rule.
Bashar al-Assad, whose country was expelled from the Arab League at the end of 2011, also visited the Sultanate of Oman on February 20, a first in twelve years of war in Syria. Oman is one of the rare Arab countries, and the only one in the Gulf, to have always maintained official diplomatic relations with Damascus since the beginning of the war.
AFP
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