UAE minister visits Syria, pledging 'earthquake support' amid normalisation with Assad

The UAE made a further step towards normalisation with the Assad regime, when the Gulf state's health and prevention minister was sent to Syria on Tuesday, promising further earthquake aid.

Abdul Rahman bin Muhammad Al-Owais pledged more support for the Syrian regime's government during a tour of the coastal city of Jableh, alongside Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghobash, the Syrian regime's SANA news agency reported on Tuesday. 

The affirmation of support came after UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan met Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus, six days after the 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude quakes hit northern Syria on 6 February, in another sign of growing ties between the two states.

Syria's membership in the Arab League was suspended in 2011, following the regime's brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.

"We and the Syrians are one, and there is continuous communication to… secure direct health and medical needs… the earthquake disaster does not represent a challenge to Syria only, but to all of humanity," SANA reported Al-Owais as saying.

"We hope to see a unified position towards this great humanitarian challenge worldwide. The UAE is a brick in this building and continues to support our brothers in Syria, especially in the medical sector," it added.

Arab states have been accused of using the earthquakes as a way of normalising relations with the Assad regime, which is responsible for the vast majority of Syria's over 500,000 war dead since the 2011 uprising began.

On Monday, Assad visited Oman. This was only his second visit to an Arab state since the 2011 revolution, the other being the UAE.

Al-Owais said a team of Emirati doctors, engineers, and health technicians has been formed to study the current situation and offer support.

Analysts and members of the Syrian opposition accuse Assad of using the earthquake to end the international isolation of his regime and to pressure the US to end sanctions.

The UAE foreign minister has made other visits to Damascus, as relations between the two countries warm.

Assad paid a rare visit to the UAE last March.

The 6 February earthquakes have killed at least 6,000 people across Syria, with many still believed to be under the rubble due to a lack of resources to pull them out.

On Monday, a new 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the border region of Syria and Turkey killing at least eight people.