First time in more than a decade, President Bashar al-Assad’s foreign minister visited Cairo on Saturday to meet with his Egyptian counterpart.
Faisal Mekdad was met by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on his first official visit to Egypt since the outbreak of protests and turmoil in Syria in 2011.
Numerous Western and Arab nations turned their backs on President Assad as a result of the Syrian civil war, which tore the country apart and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
On the condition of anonymity, an Egyptian security official said that the purpose of the trip was to assist Egypt and Saudi Arabia in facilitating Syria’s readmission to the Arab League.
As the Arab League in Cairo suspended Syria’s membership in 2011, many Arab states withdrew their diplomats from Damascus.
Due to the brutality of Assad’s government during the conflict and the need of making progress toward a political solution in Syria, the United States and Qatar, among others, have opposed restoring ties with Assad.
Yet, significant regional countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia have recently shown a softening toward Damascus.
The Egyptian foreign ministry shared photographs of the two ministers meeting secretly before to their public discussion.
The negotiations, according to the official Syrian news agency SANA, were on measures to strengthen mutual relations.
When devastating earthquakes struck Syria and Turkey in February, Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry rushed there to deliver aid.
