Kuwait foreign ministry denies official visit planned to Assad's Syria
Kuwait foreign ministry denies official visit planned to Assad's Syria
The Kuwaiti foreign minister will not visit Damascus, his department clarified, amid growing rapprochement between Arab states and the Syrian regime.
2 min read
Reports said Al-Sabah was flying to Syria later this week [Getty]
Kuwait has denied reports that its foreign minister will visit Damascus on Thursday, in light of growing Arab normalisation with the Syrian regime.
In a short statement published on its Twitter page Tuesday, the Kuwaiti foreign ministry denied reports that Minister Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah will visit the Syrian capital, calling on news outlets to be sure of their information and "avoid spreading rumours".
بيان صادر عن وزارة الخارجية.
— وزارة الخارجية (@MOFAKuwait) April 18, 2023
البيان كاملاً: https://t.co/MSM5ecA5LQ pic.twitter.com/SVXxoCZ97n
Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas reported on Tuesday that the emirate’s foreign minister will make his first trip to Syria on Thursday after 12 years.
The visit comes in light of "Arab openness to restore relations with the Syrian regime, and the conciliatory atmosphere that the region has witnessed lately", Al-Qabas quoted a government source as saying.
The newspaper deleted the article from its website around two hours after publishing it.
Al-Sabah had stated on Saturday that Kuwait would "not deviate from Arab consensus" regarding Syria, according to state-run news agency KUNA.
Saudi Arabia has recently been at the forefront of accelerating Arab efforts to normalise relations with President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. Its foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, the first visit of its kind since 2011.
Assad is expected to attend an Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia next month, his first since the regional body suspended his membership over a decade ago after his regime brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protests.
Kuwait, Qatar, and Morocco reportedly oppose the plan.
The normalisation efforts in the region come after a historic China-brokered deal last month which saw Saudi Arabia and long-time regional foe Iran end years of diplomatic hostilities.
The deal has set the stage for wider reconciliations and peace settlements in the region, especially in countries where Riyadh and Tehran have been embroiled in years-long proxy wars in the Middle East.
More In News
