Syrian President Bashar al-Asad traveled to the United Arab Emirates on Friday, his first visit to an Arab country since the start of the war in his country in 2011, the official Emirati agency WAM reported.
The Syrian president was received by the de facto leader of the Emirates, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed, to discuss the “fraternal relations” between the two countries, according to WAM.
Both leaders spoke of “cooperation and coordination between the two fraternal countries” with a view to “contributing to security, stability and peace in the Arab world and the Middle East,” the same source added.
The Arab League expelled Syria in late 2011, when Arab countries, including those in the Gulf, rejected the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations by Damascus forces.
In February 2012, the Emirates and five other Gulf Cooperation Council countries announced the withdrawal of their ambassadors from Syria, denouncing the “collective massacre” committed by the Syrian authorities.
But at the end of 2018, Abu Dhabi reopened its embassy in Damascus, although the question of Syria's return to the Arab League continues to divide its members.
bur-aem/feb/say