Assad meets UAE foreign minister

BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with visiting United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in the capital Damascus on Wednesday, state news agency SANA reported.

According to a statement from Assad's office, both men discussed boosting economic ties between their nations. It quoted Assad as saying that the improved ties of ties between the two countries are in the interest of regional stability.

The UAE's state-run WAM news agency reported that they also discussed developments in Syria and in the region, with Sheikh Abdullah expressing support for a political solution to end the conflict. Sheikh Abdullah was joined by a delegation of economic and security officials.

Sheikh Abdullah's last visit to Damascus was in 2021. In 2018, the UAE resumed diplomatic relations with Syria after closing its embassy in Damascus in 2011 when a civil war broke out in the country. The UAE reopened its embassy in Syria in 2018.

The visit also comes 10 months after Assad paid a rare visit to the UAE — his first in several years to a foreign country other than Russia and Iran.

Since the conflict began in Syria in 2011, the economy has collapsed into ruins, and more than half of the country's prewar population of 20 million are either internally displaced or live abroad as refugees.

High-level talks held

Last week, talks between the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers were held in Moscow in the highest-level encounter reported between the estranged sides since the conflict began.

Turkiye hosts more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

In developments related to humanitarian aid to Syria, Russia has signaled to UN Security Council counterparts that it will likely allow humanitarian aid deliveries from Turkiye to about 4 million people in northwestern Syria for six more months, diplomats said.

Authorization by the 15-member council is needed because Syrian authorities did not agree to the humanitarian operation, which has been delivering aid including food, medicine and shelter to opposition-controlled areas of Syria since 2014.

The UN Security Council is due to vote on extending the measure on Monday, a day before the current approval is to expire.

"We are still weighing pros and cons," Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters, adding that the implementation of the current Security Council resolution, adopted in July, was "far from our expectations".

He said Russia was consulting with Syria and that the final decision would be made by Moscow on Monday.

Agencies - Xinhua