DAMASCUS/TEHRAN -- Iran and Syria agreed to boost ties and develop economic relations, with a focus on reconstruction, as the Islamic Republic’s President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday concluded a landmark visit to Damascus.
Tehran has been a key ally to Damascus throughout the long-running war on Syria, offering vital economic and military advisory assistance that has helped the Syrian government claw back most of the territory it lost at the start of the conflict.
During late-night talks Thursday, Raisi and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad discussed “ways to develop and strengthen bilateral relations” and “emphasized existing cooperation in the field of reconstruction”, according to a joint statement released Friday.
Raisi concluded his two-day trip early Friday and had described the visit, the first by an Iranian president to Syria since 2010, as a “turning point” in the neighbors’ bilateral relations.
The visit positions Tehran in a leading role in Syria’s reconstruction, with Assad seeking to focus on reviving his country’s devastated economy and infrastructure, despite Western sanctions on both countries.
The pair also expressed a “willingness to take any action to develop commercial-economic relations”.
On Thursday, Raisi said Iran and Syria had signed 15 “cooperation documents” that would allow “both countries to open a new chapter in economic relations”.
He also praised Syria for “achieving victory” in the country’s war and invited Assad, who farewelled him at Damascus airport, to officially visit Tehran.
Raisi’s visit comes weeks after Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore ties, prompting regional capitals to re-engage with Damascus and Tehran governments.
On Sunday, Arab League foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting, discussing the conflict in Sudan and Syria’s readmission to the bloc, after it was suspended in 2011.
Iran’s president met senior Palestinian officials in Damascus and expressed his country’s support to them Thursday as Tehran and Syria signed a series of agreements.
Damascus-based Palestinian official Khaled Abdul-Majid told The Associated Press that the delegation briefed Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi on the situation in the West Bank, Al-Quds and Gaza Strip.
“The Palestinian leaders thanked Iran for its support to the resistance and the Palestinian cause,” Abdul-Majid, who attended the talks,

said after the meeting. He added that Raisi confirmed to the Palestinian officials, including top leaders from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that Iran will continue supporting the Palestinians.
Raisi began a two-day visit to Syria during which the two countries signed a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies. Raisi held talks with President Assad and visited holy shrines for Shia Muslims near the capital Damascus.
Syrian state media said Raisi and Assad signed agreements and memorandums of understanding related to several sectors, including oil, agriculture, railways and free trade zones.
Iran’s national railway company has long aspired to expand its network through neighboring Iraq and Syria, linking it to the Syrian port of Latakia on the Mediterranean Sea to boost trade.
The deals are important also for Syria, whose economy has hit an all-time low over the past decade, with spiraling inflation, a currency plunge and rampant power cuts.
The last Iranian president to visit Syria was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010.
The visit by President Raisi has rattled the United States and the occupying regime of Israel.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Thursday reacted to the United States’ dissatisfaction about the visit, saying the reaction is “natural” and telling Washington to “be angry and die angry.”
“Of course, the annoyance of a malicious regime, whose horns in Syria and the whole region have been broken by Iran and the resistance axis, and it must end its aggressive presence in Syria, is natural,” Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in response to Washington’s concern about the visit.
Vedant Patel, U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson, on Wednesday said that Iran and Syria “continuing to deepen their ties should be of great concern to not just our allies and partners and countries in the region, but also the world broadly”.
While blasting America’s concern about the visit, Kanaani delivered a firm message to Washington: “Be angry and die angry.”
“The Syrian government and nation went through great difficulties, and today we can say that you have overcome these problems and managed to achieve victory despite the threats and sanctions that were imposed against you,” Raisi told Assad during the meeting.