Syrian President Bashar al-Assad traveled to the United Arab Emirates on Friday March 18 for his first visit to an Arab country since the start of the conflict in 2011 that ravaged his country, the official Emirati news agency announced. Wow.

The Syrian president, banned from the Arab world for a decade, was received by the de facto leader of the Emirates, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed, to discuss the "fraternal relations" between the two countries, according to the Emirati agency Wam.

The two men spoke of "cooperation and coordination between the two brotherly countries" with a view to "contributing to security, stability and peace in the Arab world and in the Middle East", adds the same source. .

Reopening of the Embassy in Damascus at the end of 2018

Syria had been excluded from the Arab League at the end of 2011, the Arab countries, including those of the Gulf, protesting against the repression carried out by the power of Damascus against pro-democracy demonstrations, triggering a devastating war.

In February 2012, the Emirates and the five other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) announced the withdrawal of their ambassadors from Syria, denouncing in a joint press release the "collective massacre" committed by the Syrian authorities.

But at the end of 2018, Abu Dhabi, which is increasingly assuming its divergent positions on the diplomatic scene, had reopened its embassy in Damascus, while the question of Syria's return to the Arab League continues to divide.

The Emirati Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, met the Syrian President in Damascus last November during the first visit by a senior official of this Gulf monarchy since the start of the war in Syria in Syria. 2011.

Bashar al-Assad, who ended his visit late Friday, also met there with Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, the other major emirate in the country where he had landed earlier.

With AFP

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