Saudi Arabia appoints first ambassador to Syria since 2012
BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia on Sunday announced the appointment of its first ambassador to Syria in 12 years since severing ties with Damascus, marking an ongoing thawing in relations since the war-torn country was readmitted to the Arab League more than a year ago.
Faisal al-Mujfel’s appointment as the kingdom’s first ambassador to Syria since 2012 was announced by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. It comes more than a year after Syria was readmitted to the 22-member Arab League. It remained suspended from the group for more than a decade over President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in 2011. Riyadh severed ties with Damascus in 2012.
Syrian state media and authorities did not immediately comment on the development.
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The uprising-turned-civil war in Syria, now in its 14th year, has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. It has long remained largely frozen and so have been efforts to find a viable political solution to end it.
A devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake in February 2023 that rocked Turkey and northern Syria was a catalyst for most Arab countries to reinstate ties with Assad.
In March 2023, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to reestablish diplomatic ties after talks in Beijing, marking a major diplomatic breakthrough with an aim to reduce conflict between the two countries.
The Arab League has agreed to reinstate Syria, ending a 12-year suspension of the nation led by Bashar Assad.
Iran has been a key political and military ally for the Assad government in Syria and the Lebanese Hezbollah group. In Yemen, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015 in an attempt to restore the internationally recognized government. The conflict has turned in recent years into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week met with U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan as they edge closer to a wide-ranging security agreement, which Saudi state media said includes ending Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, delivering aid to the battered territory, and a two-state solution that “meets the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
Chehayeb writes for the Associated Press.
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