Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reopen their embassies after cutting diplomatic ties more than a decade ago. The step would mark a leap forward in Damascus’s return to the Arab fold.
A key ally of President Bashar al-Assad stated that contacts between Riyadh and Damascus had gathered momentum following a landmark agreement to re-establish ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The re-establishment of ties between Riyadh and Damascus would mark the most significant development yet in moves by Arab states to normalize ties with Assad, who was shunned by many Western and Arab states after Syria’s civil war began in 2011.
The two governments were “preparing to reopen embassies after Eid al-Fitr”, a Muslim holiday in the second half of April, a second regional source aligned with Damascus told Reuters.
The decision was the result of talks in Saudi Arabia with a senior Syrian intelligence official, according to one of the regional sources and a diplomat in the Gulf.
