Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has arrived in Damascus in what is the first visit by a top Egyptian envoy to Syria since its civil war began in 2011 and another sign of possible warming ties between President Bashar al-Assad and Arab states, Al Jazeera reports.
According to the Syrian state news agency (SANA), Shoukry was received at Damascus airport by his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad on Monday.
Al-Assad has benefitted from an outpouring of Arab support for Syria since February 6 earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people there and in neighbouring Turkey.
Earlier this month, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke with al-Assad by phone for the first time on February 7.
On Sunday, a delegation of Arab parliamentary leaders, including Egypt parliament’s Speaker Hanafy al-Gebali, met al-Assad in Damascus.
Earlier, following the earthquake, the foreign minister of Jordan, which once backed the Syrian opposition, also visited Damascus for the first time since the civil war began.
Syria was largely isolated from the rest of the Arab world following al-Assad’s deadly crackdown against protests that erupted against his rule in 2011. The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership the same year, and many Arab countries pulled their envoys out of Damascus.
The United Arab Emirates, which began normalising ties with al-Assad several years ago, has poured aid into Syria since the earthquake. Saudi Arabia also sent planes carrying aid to Syria, a first in more than a decade.
