Beirut (Reuters) – Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit the United Arab Emirates for the first time and plans to visit Türkiye next week, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Sharaa, who previously visited Turkey in February, will be the second Gulf destination in the UAE after heading to Saudi Arabia the same month since taking office as president in January.
He and other members of the new Syrian leader in a lightning offensive in December, he has been working to keep in touch with Arab and Western leaders after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, led by Shara’s Sunni Islamic group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Sharaa and his officials also called for a total sanction on Syria.
Syria urgently needs sanctions relief to begin the economy that collapsed in the nearly 14 years of war, during which the United States, Britain and Europe imposed tough sanctions on people, businesses and the entire sector of the Syrian economy to make up for the now-anticipated leader Assad.
(Reported by Maya Gebeily; Writing by Hatem Maher and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Nick Zieminski)
