Visit comes as Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, Syria’s newly appointed foreign minister, meets GCC officials in Damascus.
Syria’s new Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani says he has accepted an invitation from his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah to visit, in what would be his first official foreign trip.
“I am honoured to represent my country on my first official visit [to Saudi Arabia],” al-Shibani said in a post on X on Monday.
“We look forward to building strategic relations with our brothers in the kingdom in all fields,” he said, describing the visit as a gesture of goodwill and a step towards restoring Syria’s role in the region after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad this month.
Al-Shaibani was appointed foreign minister on December 21 by Syria’s interim government, becoming the country’s first top diplomat since al-Assad’s overthrow.
During a news conference with his Kuwaiti counterpart Abdullah al-Yahya in the capital, Damascus, later on Monday, al-Shaibani said his visit to Saudi Arabia is scheduled in the “first week of the new year”.
He also called on Kuwait, “with all love and joy” to reopen its embassy in Damascus and resume relations with Syria following the downfall of al-Assad.
Kuwait’s foreign minister al-Yahya’s visit was the latest by regional leaders and diplomats as they signal an openness to establishing relations in the wake of the overthrow of al-Assad by rebel forces on December 8.
GCC ‘ready to invest in Syria’
Al-Yahya and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi also met Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, during their visit. Al-Yahya said they discussed regional developments and cooperation.
Al-Yahya called on the international community to reconsider sanctions imposed on Syria. He also said Kuwait’s leadership has appealed for aid to be sent to Syria urgently.
“The visit expresses our keenness on opening a new page of regional cooperation … we also value the responsiveness of the new administration in Syria to these efforts,” he said.
Sunni Muslim Arab states had boycotted the former Syrian administration after al-Assad accepted help from Shia and non-Arab Iran and Russia to put down the rebellion against him. In 2013, the Arab League readmitted Syria after more than a decade of suspension.
Earlier on Monday, al-Sharaa met Ukraine’s foreign minister in Damascus and announced a new strategic partnership.
The visit by Ukraine’s top diplomat came after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that his country had sent its first batch of food aid, 500 tonnes of wheat flour, to Syria.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Damascus, said “delegation after delegation” has been arriving in Damascus to express support for the new administration.
Al-Yahya and Al-Budaiwi were “making it clear that they are here not only on behalf of Kuwait, but on behalf of all the Gulf countries – saying they are ready to invest in Syria, and welcome Syria back to the Arab world,” Serdar said.
The visit is particularly important because “Syria desperately needs investments in its energy sector because it was mostly destroyed by 13 years of civil war,” Serdar said.
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Al Jazeera and news agencies