RIYADH: Ministers from Syria’s transitional government held talks in Saudi Arabia on Thursday on their first foreign visit since they toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last month.

“Through this first visit in the history of free Syria, we aspire to open a new, bright page in Syrian-Saudi relations that befits the long shared history between the two countries,” interim Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani posted on social media after arriving in Riyadh late on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia severed ties with Assad’s government in 2012 and backed Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow him early in the country’s civil war. But last year, Riyadh restored ties with Assad’s government and was instrumental in Syria’s return to the Arab League, ending its regional isolation.

Now Syria’s new leadership is eager for Saudi investment to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure, which has been shattered by more than a decade of war.

Forces launch security sweep in Homs

Kingdom’s FM Shibani was accompanied by Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and General Intelligence Service chief Anas Khattab, and the three men held talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi state television reported.

Last month, a Saudi delegation met Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, a source close to the Saudi government said at the time. Sharaa heads the religious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that led the rebel offensive that ousted Assad on December 8.

Last week, in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television, Sharaa said Saudi Arabia “will certainly have a large role in Syria’s future”, pointing to “a big investment opportunity for all neighbouring countries”.

Homs operation

Moreover, Syrian security forces are conducting a security sweep in the city of Homs, state media reported on Thursday, with a monitor saying targets include protest organisers from the Alawi minority of the former president.

“The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the Military Operations Department, begins a wide-scale combing operation in the neighbourhoods of Homs city,” state news agency SANA said quoting a security official. The statement said the targets were “war criminals and those involved in crimes who refused to hand over their weapons and go to the settlement centres” but also “fugitives from justice, in addition to hidden ammunition and weapons”.

Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, said the two districts are majority-Alawi — the community from which ousted President Bashar al-Assad hails.

“The ongoing campaign aims to search for former Shabiha and those who organised or participated in the Alawi demonstrations last week, which the administration considered as incitement against” its authority, he said.

Shabiha were notorious pro-government militias tasked with helping to crush dissent under Assad. On Dec 25, thousands protested in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawi shrine in the country’s north.

Agency was unable to independently verify the footage or the date of the incident but the interior ministry said the video was “old and dates to the time of the liberation” of Aleppo in December.

Since seizing power, Syria’s new leadership has repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they will not be harmed. Alawi fear backlash against their community both as a religious minority and because of its long association with the Assad family. Last week, security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad fighters in the western province of Tartus, in the Alawi heartland, state media had said, a day after 14 security personnel of the new authorities and three gunmen were killed in clashes there.

Separately, Qatar Airways announced on Thursday it will resume flights to the Syrian capital Damascus after nearly 13 years, starting with three weekly flights beginning on Tuesday.

The Qatari national carrier “is pleased to announce the resumption of three weekly flights to Damascus, Syria, from 7 Jan 2025,” it said in a statement. It hailed a “significant step in reconnecting the region”, about a month after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2025