UAE to reopen embassy in Syria on Thursday: Damascus
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Druze residents of the Golan Heights hold Syrian national flags and portraits of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally in the Druze village
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will officially reopen its embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday, the Syrian Information Ministry has announced.
The ministry on Thursday announced the development in a note distributed among journalists to invite them to the reopening event.
The UAE, an Arab country like Syria, closed its embassy soon after the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, and Abu Dhabi was long considered a sponsor of the many militant groups that poured into Syria from across the region and beyond to fight to bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
As that conflict winds down, with the Syrian government and military regaining control over almost all major areas previously overtaken by militants, Damascus’ former adversaries seem to be changing their calculations.
That change of heart is in all likelihood also affected by a United States decision to withdraw all of its forces from Syria — where they had been illegally positioned. The US had long been prodded by President Assad’s regional foes to militarily intervene against his government.
On December 16, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Damascus in the first such visit by an Arab leader since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
In November, Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta had reported that the UAE was negotiating the reopening of its embassy in Syria and return of its envoy to Damascus.
A source in Damascus said Emirati officials had been meeting with the Syrian government over the issue.
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