RIYADH: Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa said Saudi Arabia had a “genuine desire” to support his war-torn country, after meeting on Sunday with the oil-rich Gulf state’s crown prince.

Accompanied by his foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, Sharaa was greeted by Saudi officials on arrival in Riyadh, images from state television outlet Al-Ekhbariya showed.

Sharaa was later received by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the official Saudi news agency reported.

“We held a long meeting during which we felt and heard a genuine desire to support Syria in building its future,” Sharaa was quoted as saying in a statement on Telegram.

The official Saudi Press Agency, meanwhile, said that Prince Mohammed and Sharaa discussed “ways to support the security and stability of sisterly Syria”, as well as “ways to strengthen bilateral relations”. Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December, was named Syria’s interim president on Wednesday.

Saudi King Salman and his son Prince Mohammed were among the first to congratulate him on his official appointment.

The Syrian authorities are counting on wealthy Gulf countries to finance the reconstruction of their war-ravaged nation and revive its economy.

In late December, Sharaa said in an interview with the Saudi channel Al-Arabiya that the kingdom would “certainly play an important role” in Syria’s future, highlighting a “great opportunity for investment”.

He told the channel he was born in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked, and that he had spent the first seven years of his life in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Rabha Seif Allam, a regional expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said Riyadh was “playing a key role in reintegrating the new Syria into the Arab world and onto the international stage”.

She said that Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, would “directly benefit” from the stabilisation of Syria.

“Iran is now excluded from the Syrian landscape, weakening its regional influence, and drug trafficking from Syria to the Gulf countries, which had been a destabilising factor, is now a thing of the past.” Distancing Damascus from Tehran was a “strategic service” to Riyadh, she added.

Though Saudi Arabia and Iran ended a seven-year diplomatic freeze in 2023, the regional heavyweights remain at odds over multiple geopolitical issues, including the civil war in Syria, where they backed opposing sides.

Syria is also pressing for the lifting of international sanctions that have drag­ged down its economy.

The sanctions date back to 1979, when the United States labelled Syria a “state sponsor of terrorism”, but they were ramped up significantly by Washington and other Western powers when Assad cracked down on anti-government protests in 2011 and sparked the civil war.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister visited Damascus last month and promised to help secure an end to the restrictions.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan said during his visit that Riyadh was engaged in “active dialogue with all relevant countries, whether the United States or the European Union, and we are hearing positive messages”.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2025