Tehran, Iran — Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will go to Damascus on Wednesday at the official invitation of the Syrian president for a “very important” two-day visit, state media reported.
“Dr Raisi’s trip to Damascus next Wednesday is a very important trip due to the changes and developments that are taking place in the region,” IRNA state news agency on Sunday quoted Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, as saying.
The visit comes against the backdrop of a rapprochement between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, and increased Arab engagement with Damascus.
Iran is a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad and has given financial and military support to his regime during Syria’s 12-year-old conflict.
“This trip will not only be beneficial for Tehran and Damascus, but it is also a very good event that other countries in the region can also take advantage of,” Akbari was reported as saying.
Raisi’s visit will be the first by an Iranian president to Damascus since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011.
The last Iranian president to visit the Syrian capital was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in September 2010.
The Islamic republic finances, arms and commands a number of Syrian and foreign militia groups fighting alongside the Assad regime’s regular armed forces, chief among them Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group.
Jordan Meet
Arab foreign ministers will gather in Jordan on Monday to discuss Syria’s long-running conflict and ending Damascus’s diplomatic isolation in the region, the foreign ministry in Amman said.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has been politically isolated since the conflict in his country began in 2011.
However, recent weeks have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity after Saudi Arabia and Iran — a close ally of Damascus — resumed diplomatic ties in March, shifting regional relations.
Monday’s meeting in Amman will bring together foreign ministers from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
The talks will “take stock of the contacts of these countries with the Syrian government to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis”, a foreign ministry statement said Sunday.
It called the gathering “a continuation of the consultative meeting of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, which was hosted by Saudi Arabia” in mid-April.
That meeting saw nine Arab states meet in Jeddah to discuss ending Syria’s long spell in the diplomatic wilderness and its possible return to the 22-member Arab League after Damascus was suspended in 2011.
The diplomats stressed the “importance of having an Arab leadership role in efforts to end the crisis” in Syria, a statement by the Saudi foreign ministry said.
The United Arab Emirates re-established ties with Damascus in late 2018. April also saw Syria and Tunisia announce they would reopen diplomatic missions in their respective capitals.
Regional opponents to Damascus’s reintegration remain, however. Qatar, which has supported Syrian rebel groups, called the idea of Syria returning to the Arab League mere “speculation”.
The 12-year war in Syria has claimed around half a million lives and nearly half of its population are now refugees or internally displaced.
Swathes of territory still remain outside government control.
Assad is hoping for full normalization of ties with the wealthy Gulf monarchies will help to finance the reconstruction of the country’s war-ravaged infrastructure.