Syria’s top diplomat to visit Saudi Arabia for first foreign trip

Syria’s newly minted foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, is expected to make his first visit abroad to Saudi Arabia early next month.

In a post on X on Monday, Shibani said he received an invitation from his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, and accepted “with all love and pleasure”.

“I am honored to represent my country on my first official visit,” he wrote. “We look forward to building strategic relations with our brothers in the Kingdom in all fields.”

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— ???? ??? ???????? (@Asaad_Shaibani) December 30, 2024

The announcement came as a string of Arab delegations have made their way to Damascus in recent days to meet with Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, as he looks to shore up support in the region and normalise relations that collapsed in the wake of former president Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.

On Monday, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Abdullah al-Yahya was in the Syrian capital, following visits last week by Qatari, Bahraini, and Jordanian officials.

The new Syrian leadership is, in particular, seeking investment from the oil-rich Gulf countries to help rebuild a battered economy and infrastructure after 13 years of war.

Democracy delayed

In an interview with Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya, which was broadcast on Sunday, Sharaa said it could take up to four years before Syrians can elect their own president.

Sharaa said his group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), needs to focus on enforcing law and order in a liberated Syria before it can hand over control to a transitional government. 

HTS, he said, is merely a caretaker government for the time being.

“The current phase is preliminary to a longer interim government,” Sharaa said. 

He added that a National Dialogue Conference will be convened with participants from across Syrian society, and specialised committees will be formed.

“The process of writing the constitution may take about three years,” Sharaa said, and “any valid elections will require a comprehensive population census.”

Any elections are likely to take place four years from now, he said, adding that it will also be a year before Syrians see definitive reform across the country. 

Ukraine aid

In a notable shift, a Ukrainian delegation also visited Syria on Monday to meet with Sharaa and Shibani. 

Kyiv pledged 500 tonnes of flour for Damascus, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy writing on X: “This is a demonstration of Ukraine’s leadership and swiftness in foreign policy - exactly what can provide the necessary advantage. We can help restore stability in Syria after years of Russian interference, and this will undoubtedly help us restore peace for ourselves as well.”

“It would be the right step to re-establish our diplomatic relations with Syria and renew our economic cooperation,” Zelenskyy added. “We are counting on post-Assad Syria to respect international law in a way that Assad neither could nor wanted to.”

Today, I want to express my gratitude to the teams at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine for our delegation’s visit to Damascus – to the new Syria. I am looking forward to the ministers’ reports on the negotiations… pic.twitter.com/IIkfwvoXn8

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / ????????? ?????????? (@ZelenskyyUa) December 30, 2024

Russia has provided decades-long backing for the Assad government, including airlifting the former president to Moscow earlier this month as HTS-led rebel groups advanced on the capital. 

Russia is now moving its sophisticated weaponry out of its bases in Syria to Libya, US officials have said.