DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad visited the Gulf nation of Oman on Monday on his first official go to since the lethal Feb. 6 earthquake, his workplace stated.
Oman is one of some Arab nations that saved regular relations with Damascus after Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over its crackdown on Arab Spring protests.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake which struck Feb. 6 has killed practically 45,000 individuals in Turkey and Syria and has introduced an extra thawing in relations between Assad and different Arab states.
Assad’s workplace stated that in the course of the go to, the president was obtained by Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, Oman’s chief.
It quoted Assad as saying that Oman preserved “its balanced insurance policies and credibility” including that the area wants the position of Oman to strengthen relations between Arab nations primarily based on “mutual respect and noninterference in different nations’ affairs.”
Up to now few years, Assad has visited Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Because the quake, United Arab Emirates Overseas Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Assad, whereas different Arab nations that had minimize relations with Syria in the course of the battle — most notably Saudi Arabia and Egypt — have delivered help to Damascus.
Jordan’s overseas minister met final week with Assad in Damascus, the primary Jordanian official to go to since the start of the battle.
In 2020, Oman despatched an envoy to Syria after an eight-year hiatus making Oman the primary Gulf Arab state to reinstate its ambassador to Syria since the eruption of the nation’s battle.
In 2012, Oman and different Gulf Arab nations withdrew their ambassadors in protest of the Syrian authorities’s violent suppression of a year-old rebellion. Different Arab states shuttered their embassies however Oman, identified for its neutrality and diplomacy between regional foes, saved its open all through the years of battle.
Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011, and Arab nations have sanctioned Damascus and condemned its use of navy pressure towards the opposition.
