The war-torn country requires much-needed investment, as Saudi Arabia also decided to play a major role in reconstruction.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani has announced that he will visit Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, having just made his first official foreign trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this week.
The top diplomat in Syria’s new government said in a social media post on Friday that he would visit the three countries this week to “support stability, security, economic recovery and build distinguished partnerships.”
The new government, made up of rebels who brought an abrupt end to decades of brutal rule by the al-Assad family last month, is eager for investment from wealthy Gulf states to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure and boost economy, devastated by more than a decade of war.
Saudi Arabia already looks set to play a major role in the country’s revival. Earlier this week, al-Shaibani led a high-ranking delegation to Riyadh that included the new defense minister and intelligence chief.
A Saudi delegation from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center headed to Damascus on Friday, meeting Syrian Health Minister Maher al-Sharaa to discuss humanitarian and medical cooperation, according to state news agency SANA.
The Saudi visit came as the new government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, tries to revive a battered health system, crippled after 13 years of war and ravaged by nepotism and corruption.
On Friday, al-Sharaa and interim Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati agreed in a phone call to restore calm along the 375-km (233-mile) border after clashes between Lebanese soldiers and Syrian gunmen left five of the former wounded.
Mikat’s office issued a statement quoting al-Sharaa as saying his administration had done “everything necessary to restore calm at the borders and prevent a repeat of what happened.”
Al-Sharaa, who heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, also invited Mikati to visit Damascus and discuss common interests.
