The interim President of Syria, Ahmed al-Charaa, made his first foreign visit this Sunday in Saudi Arabia, since he came to power in Syria. The new Syrian leader hopes to attract investors to rebuild the country.
A first for the new leader of Damascus. On Sunday, February 2, the Syrian interim president made his first foreign visit to Saudi Arabia since he came to power in Syria after overthrowing Bashar al-Assad.
Accompanied by his Foreign Minister Assaad al-Chaibani, Ahmed al-Charaa (NDLR: by his alias Abu Mohammed al-Joulani) was welcomed by several Saudi dignitaries upon his landing, according to images widely broadcast by the Saudi state television Al-Ekhbariya.
Thus, the new master of Damascus met the crown prince and de facto ruler of the kingdom, Mohammed bin Salman, the channel specified, without, however, specifying either the time or the conditions.
Earlier on Sunday, the Syrian presidency had released a photo of Ahmed al-Charaa and his head of diplomacy aboard what appears to be a private plane, and the Syrian official news agency Sana announced that a meeting would be held in Riyadh between Chareh, Chaïbani and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Ahmed al-Charaa was appointed last Wednesday as interim president for the transition period in Syria during a closed-door meeting of the «General Command of Military Operations,» his coalition of Sunni Islamist armed groups having overthrown the Assad regime on December 8.
In pursuit of foreign investors
The Syrian authorities rely on the wealthy Gulf countries, which are not hostile, to finance the reconstruction and participate in the recovery of the economy in Syria, which is suffocated by international sanctions and devastated by nearly 14 years of civil war.
A major financial player in the Arab world, Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy, congratulated Ahmed al-Charaa on his appointment on Thursday and wished him «success and success.».
Ahmed al-Charaa had stated at the end of December on the Saudi channel al-Arabiya that the kingdom would play a «certainly important role» in the future of Syria, mentioning «a great opportunity for investments».
Furthermore, he had revealed his attachment to the kingdom, which he was born in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked and where he spent the first seven years of his life.
For Rabha Seif Allam, analyst at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Riyadh « plays a key role in the reintegration of the new Syria into the Arab world and the international arena ».
The calm restored; a re-composition of the Arab world
The first economy in the Arab world, she asserts, «reaps a direct benefit from the stabilization of post-Assad Syria,» explaining that «Iran is now removed from the Syrian landscape, weakening its regional influence, and the drug trafficking from Syria to the Gulf States, which represented a factor of destabilization, now belongs to the past.» The era of Iran’s unconditional support for Damascus and Bashar al-Assad is over.
«By removing Tehran from Syria,» Ahmed al-Charaa «provided a strategic service to Saudi Arabia,» she concludes.
Although Saudi Arabia and Iran ended a seven-year rift in 2023, the two powers remain at odds on several strategic issues, notably the war in Yemen, where Tehran supports the Houthis rebels while Riyadh leads a coalition supporting the government forces.
The Gulf monarchies also accuse Tehran of interfering in many Arab affairs.
On Thursday, the Syrian government received a visit from the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who in turn said he hoped for a government «representing all the components» of Syrian society, in order to «consolidate stability and advance in the projects of reconstruction and development.».
According to Damascus, the two countries also discussed a «global framework for bilateral engagement in the field of reconstruction».
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Damascus has hosted several high-ranking diplomatic delegations, both Arab and Western, who came to meet the new Syrian authorities.
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