Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for his first international visit since the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, state media reported.
Accompanied by his foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani, Sharaa was greeted by Saudi officials as he disembarked, images from state television outlet Al-Ekhbariya showed.
The broadcaster said Sharaa was expected to meet with de facto Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but did not specify when.
Syrian state news agency SANA also reported the pair would meet with Prince Mohammed in Riyadh, without providing further details.
The Syrian presidency had earlier posted a picture on X of Sharaa and Shaibani aboard what appeared to be a private jet on their way to Saudi Arabia, calling it a “first official visit”.
Sharaa, whose Islamist group led the overthrow of Assad in December, was named interim president on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and his son Prince Mohammed were among the first to congratulate him on his official appointment.
The Syrian authorities are counting on wealthy Gulf countries to finance the reconstruction of their war-ravaged nation and revive its economy.
In late December, Sharaa stated in an interview with the Saudi channel Al-Arabiya that the kingdom would “certainly play an important role” in Syria’s future, highlighting a “great opportunity for investment”.
He told the channel he was born in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked, and that he had spent the first seven years of his life there.
‘Strategic service’
Rabha Seif Allam, a regional expert at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said Riyadh was “playing a key role in reintegrating the new Syria into the Arab world and onto the international stage”.
She said that Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, would “directly benefit” from the stabilisation of Syria.
“Iran is now excluded from the Syrian landscape, weakening its regional influence, and drug trafficking from Syria to the Gulf countries, which had been a destabilising factor, is now a thing of the past.”
Distancing Damascus from Tehran was a “strategic service” to Riyadh, she added.
Though Saudi Arabia and Iran ended a seven-year diplomatic freeze in 2023, the regional heavyweights remain at odds over multiple geopolitical issues, including the civil war in Syria, where they backed opposing sides.
Syria is also pressing for international sanctions that have dragged down its economy to be lifted.
The sanctions date back to 1979, when the United States labelled Syria a “state sponsor of terrorism”, but they were ramped up significantly by Washington and other Western powers when Assad cracked down on anti-government protests in 2011 and sparked the civil war.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister visited Damascus last month and promised to help secure an end to the restrictions.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan said during his visit that Riyadh was engaged in “active dialogue with all relevant countries, whether the United States or the European Union, and we are hearing positive messages”.
The new Syrian authorities have received a steady stream of diplomatic visitors since toppling Assad in December.
On Thursday, Damascus received Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, who “stressed the urgent need to form a government representing all spectrums” of Syrian society in order “to consolidate stability and move forward with reconstruction, development and prosperity projects”.
