TEHRAN -- Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will go to Damascus on Wednesday at the official invitation of the Syrian president for a “very important” two-day visit.
“Dr. Raisi’s trip to Damascus next Wednesday is a very important trip due to the changes and developments that are taking place in the region,” IRNA news agency on Sunday quoted Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hussein Akbari, as saying.
Raisi will lead a “high economic-political delegation” in his trip. The visit comes against the backdrop of a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and increased Arab engagement with Damascus.
Iran is a major ally of President Bashar Assad and has given financial and military support to the country the 12-year-old war on Syria. Iran says it has deployed forces in Syria at the invitation of Damascus but only as advisers.
“This trip will not only be beneficial for Tehran and Damascus, but it is also a very good event that other countries in the region can also take advantage of,” Akbari was reported as saying.
Muhammad Jamshidi, the president’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, said Raisi will visit Syria to celebrate the resistance front’s victory. “West Asia has undergone a tense period of geopolitical change with 2 results: victory of Iran & failure of the U.S.,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
Raisi’s visit will be the first by an Iranian president to Damascus since the start of the war in Syria in 2011.
The last Iranian president to visit the Syrian capital was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in September 2010.
Last week, the defense and intelligence heads of Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey held talks in Moscow as part of efforts to bring a political solution to the war-torn country.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei last year hailed the relationship between Tehran and Damascus as “vital for both countries”, saying it should be strengthened “as much as possible”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian said on Friday the planned presidential visit signals the “multidimensional” cooperation between the two countries.
Jordan on Monday will host foreign ministers from Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria for talks on Syria’s war and ending Damascus’s diplomatic isolation in the region, the foreign ministry in Amman said.
Assad is hoping full normalization of ties with wealthy Persian Gulf monarchies and other Arab states will help to finance the reconstruction of the country’s war-ravaged infrastructure.