DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad visited the Gulf nation of Oman on Monday on his first official go to because the lethal Feb. 6 earthquake, his workplace mentioned.
Oman is one of some Arab international locations that stored 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 mentioned that throughout the go to, the president was acquired 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 international locations based mostly on “mutual respect and noninterference in different international locations’ affairs.”
Prior to now few years, Assad has visited Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
For the reason that quake, United Arab Emirates International Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Assad, whereas different Arab international locations that had lower relations with Syria throughout the struggle — most notably Saudi Arabia and Egypt — have delivered help to Damascus.
Jordan’s international minister met final week with Assad in Damascus, the primary Jordanian official to go to because the starting 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 because the eruption of the nation’s battle.
In 2012, Oman and different Gulf Arab international locations 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, recognized for its neutrality and diplomacy between regional foes, stored its open all through the years of battle.
Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011, and Arab international locations have sanctioned Damascus and condemned its use of navy power towards the opposition.