New Syrian foreign minister begins first visit to UAE

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani landed in the United Arab Emirates on Monday on his first visit to the country since rebels toppled president Bashar al-Assad last month, official news agency SANA said.

“Shaibani, accompanied by defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab, has arrived in the UAE,” SANA reported.

Shaibani also posted a picture of himself on X stepping off a plane, and said he looked forward “to building constructive bilateral relations”.

The officials took office after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus in early December, toppling Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.

Their trip to the UAE comes after they visited its Gulf neighbours Qatar on Sunday and Saudi Arabia last week.

Analysts say the UAE is deeply suspicious of Syria’s new leaders, reflecting its distrust for political Islam and fear of outsized Turkish influence in the war-scarred country.

Both Qatar and Turkey, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, reopened their embassies in Damascus in the aftermath of Assad’s flight to Moscow.

Turkey has long maintained a working relationship with the HTS rebels, leaving it with a direct line to Damascus.

The UAE, by contrast, had championed restoring ties with Assad in the years before his downfall, a stance that paved the way for his reintegration into the Arab League in 2023.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said last month that his government found the Islamist affiliation of Syria’s new rulers “quite worrying”.