Syria’s chief diplomat has visited Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE this month [Getty]
Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad Al-Shaibani, will make his first official visit to Turkey on Wednesday as the transition government in Damascus continues its regional outreach following the toppling of the Assad regime in December.
“We will represent the new Syria tomorrow in the first official visit to Turkey, which has not abandoned the Syrian people for 14 years,” he announced in a post on X on Tuesday.
Turkey was a key foreign backer of the Syrian opposition during the country’s 14-year civil war and has maintained close ties to a number of armed groups fighting Kurdish forces in the north of the country.
It cooperated in Idlib with the civilian authority of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group which led the rebel offensive which brought down the Assad regime and now governs in Damascus.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was one of the rebel groups’ most vocal supporters as they swept through Syria in December, and has pledged to help the transitional government rebuild the country following years of war.
The head of Syria’s state energy company said last week that Turkey and Qatar are sending two power ships to ease the country’s crippling electricity shortage.
Al-Shaibani has visited Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE since becoming foreign minister in late December.
The top diplomats of several Western countries – including France, Germany and Italy – have visited the country for talks with the country’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. The American and UK governments have also sent delegations to Damascus.
Clashes on the Lebanon border
Clashes involving Hezbollah fighters took place in several locations on the Syria-Lebanon border on Tuesday morning.
Members of the Shia group clashed with Syrian government forces southwest of Al-Qusayr while reportedly attempting to smuggle weapons across the border into Lebanon, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Separately, the government sent military reinforcements to the border village of Al-Masriya after residents reportedly came under fire from Hezbollah fighters. No casualties were recorded in the clashes.
Syria’s porous western border with Lebanon has been a vital weapons smuggling route for Hezbollah and its Iranian backers.
The new government in Damascus is seeking to clamp down on smuggling at the frontier with Lebanon and earlier this month introduced tighter border controls.
