Al-Assad visit to UAE in world press
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Saturday, several international journals particularly American ones read the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad’s, visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be a sign discloses transition in the Arabic ties with the “shunned-Syrian government” over a decade following the bloody incidents the country has witnessed for 11 years.
The visit, according to The New York Times newspaper, sends the clearest signal yet that the Arab world is willing to re-engage with “Syria’s widely shunned president.”
The newspaper linked between the visit and the Russian-Ukrainian war, where Assad’s main ally, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, is pressing on with a military offensive, now in its fourth week. Syria has supported Russia’s invasion, accusing the West of having provoked it.
As for the British newspaper The Guardian, it reported saying, “Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League and boycotted by its neighbors after the conflict broke out 11 years ago.”
“Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the war, which displaced half of Syria’s population. Large parts of Syria have been destroyed and reconstruction would cost tens of billions of dollars.”
“Arab and western countries generally blamed Assad for the deadly crackdown on the 2011 protests that evolved into civil war, and supported the opposition in the early days of the conflict,” The Guardian added.
With the war having fallen into a stalemate and Assad recovering control over most of the country thanks to military assistance from allies Russia and Iran, Arab countries have inched closer toward restoring ties with the Syrian leader in recent years, according to the newspaper.
The visit, according to the American magazine NewsWeek, paid by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the United Arab Emirates marks what is believed to be his first trip to an Arab nation since the outbreak of civil war in his country 11 years ago, sending the strongest signal yet that “the leader once isolated from the region was rebuilding international ties”.
The visit was cited by the French newspaper Le Monde to be another step towards normalizing ties between the Syrian government and some Arab countries.
The Syrian authorities are trying to revive ties with the regional neighboring countries with the goal to reconstruct the war-torn economy in the country.
Hours after the visit was revealed, the US State Department spokesperson Ned Price issued a deeply critical response.
Ned Price said Washington was “profoundly disappointed and troubled by this apparent attempt to legitimize Bashar al-Assad.”
Price held the Syrian president responsible and accountable for “death and suffering of countless Syrians, the displacement of more than half of the prewar Syrian population and the arbitrary detention and disappearance of over 150,000 Syrian men, women and children.”
“We do not support efforts to rehabilitate Assad; and we do not support others normalizing relations. We have been clear about this with our partners.”
The UAE reopened its embassy in Syria in late 2018, and in October 2021, the Syrian President received the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan the first visit by the country’s top diplomat since 2011.