ISLAMABAD: In his second visit to the Gulf since a devastating earthquake last month, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad arrived Sunday in the United Arab Emirates. The quake has led to an Arab outreach to his globally isolated regime.
The visit — Assad’s 2nd to the UAE in as many years — comes after a trip to Oman in February, which have been his only official engagements in Arab states since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
According to UAE state media, “President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar Al Assad arrived Sunday in the UAE, accompanied by his wife Asma, on an official visit.
The official news agency WAM reported that Assad was greeted in the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi by the Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
UAE normalized ties with Assad’s regime in 2018
Abu Dhabi, which had normalized ties with Assad’s regime in 2018, has led relief efforts in following the February 6 earthquake that struck SE Turkey and N Syria, killing tens of thousands.
Experts opine that a diplomatic momentum boosted by aid efforts after the quake could better Damascus’s ties with Middle Eastern countries that have thus far resisted normalization after more than ten years of conflict.
Abu Dhabi pledged more than $100 million in aid to quake-hit Syria, which is the largest sum by any single nation by a long margin.
The Gulf state has also dispatched a team for search and rescue as well as providing many thousands of tonnes in emergency aid items.
The Emirati FM, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, visited Syria in February — the 1st senior Gulf official to do so since the deadly earthquake.
While the war raged in Syria, Assad had seldom gone abroad, with the notable exception of allies Russia and Iran. This week Assad again visited Moscow and held a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, top Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani met the Emirati president in Abu Dhabi and held discussions with UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
On Sunday, Sheikh Tahnoun attended the welcoming ceremony for Assad at the presidential palace.
The FM of Saudi Arabia, which has also sent quake relief items to Syria, said in February a consensus was building among Arab countries that a new approach to Damascus would be required to address humanitarian crises including the earthquake.
