Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received on Tuesday (April 18th) the head of Saudi diplomacy, whose visit to Damascus – for the first time since the beginning of the war in 2011 – consecrates the reconciliation between the oil monarchy and Syria.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhane arrived at Damascus International Airport and was received by the head of state, the official SANA news agency reported.

This visit is motivated by the "concern of the kingdom to reach a political solution to the crisis in Syria (...)", which could "bring it back to its Arab environment", said the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. The Saudi minister's visit comes a week after that of his Syrian counterpart Faisal Moqdad to Saudi Arabia, also the first since the beginning of the war.

Syria has been diplomatically isolated since the 2011 crackdown on the popular uprising that escalated into conflict. Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Gulf countries, broke off relations with Damascus in 2012 and even supported rebels at the beginning of the war, in a country that has become a battleground between foreign forces.

But after the February earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria, the kingdom made a first gesture by sending humanitarian aid.

Context of Iranian-Saudi appeasement

In March, Syria and Saudi Arabia had already held discussions on resuming their consular services, and on April 12, Syrian Minister Faisal Moqdad made an unannounced visit to Jeddah, in the west of the Wahhabi kingdom. In a joint statement, the Syrian and Saudi foreign ministers spoke of the goal of "bringing Syria back into the Arab fold".

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview last month that Saudi Arabia had "taken a different turn in recent years," and that Syria was no longer "a Saudi-Iranian battleground."

The Syrian-Saudi reconciliation comes amid easing tensions between the oil kingdom and its great regional rival, Iran, which supports the Damascus regime politically, militarily and economically. The two Middle Eastern heavyweights, who severed ties in 2016, reached an unexpected deal in March, brokered by China, to resume relations. The two countries pledged to work together for "the security and stability of the region."

Bashar al-Assad is banking on full normalization with the rich Gulf monarchies to finance the reconstruction of his country with war-ravaged infrastructure. The conflict has claimed about half a million lives. Nearly half of Syrians are now refugees or internally displaced persons, and parts of the territory are still outside government control.

Restoring "good bilateral relations" with Arab countries

But the question of a return of Syria to the Arab fold is not unanimous, especially among the monarchies of the Gulf. Qatar, which has supported the Syrian opposition, remains hostile to normalization with Bashar al-Assad, while other countries such as the United Arab Emirates have normalized relations with Damascus.

Saudi Arabia last week hosted a meeting of nine Arab countries – the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan – to discuss Syria's possible return to the Arab League, from which it was expelled in 2012, ahead of its next summit on May 19 in the kingdom.

But no decision was taken at the meeting, with the nine countries saying only that they discussed the importance for Arab countries to "play a leading role in initiatives to end the crisis" in Syria.

President Assad said last month that the key for him was to re-establish "good bilateral relations" with Arab countries, before a possible return to the Arab League. Fayçal Moqdad has also visited Algeria and Tunisia in recent days.

With AFP

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