DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- The United Arab Emirates foreign minister arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, making him the most senior Emirati official to visit Syria in the decade since a foreign-backed war erupted in the country.
The UAE and Syrian foreign ministries did not confirm the reports, but an online flight tracker shows the Abu Dhabi presidential plane flying into Syria.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed arrived with a senior delegation, according to Al-Manar TV, which is run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad.
The UAE, which has previously backed militants trying to topple the Syrian president, has been at the forefront of efforts to normalize relations with Syria. Earlier this year, it even called for Syria to be readmitted to the Arab League and it reopened its embassy in Damascus three years ago.
A close ally of the UAE, the United States does not support the Persian Gulf state’s efforts to normalize relations with Assad.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the United States’ support for separatist tendencies in northeastern Syria may make the Kurdish problem chronic not only for Syria but for other countries of the region.
“Kurds should feel themselves part of Syrian society. We maintain close contacts with Kurdish representatives and are ready to do our best so that their legal interests are taken into account when forming new political frames in the context of the Constitutional Committee’s activities,” he said.
“I would recommend the Kurds not be lured by our American colleagues who are seeking to nourish separatist tendencies in eastern Syria and make these plans a serious irritator targeted against the interests of preserving Syria’s integrity. These are dangerous games that may lead to a situation when the Kurdish problem blazes up in the entire region, bearing in mind that it concerns not only Syria but other countries as well,” he said.
Lavrov said Russia will insist on the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254 by all countries. “It concerns those whose military presence in Syria is illegal. It is about the necessity to respect this country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by all, the necessity to drop illegal unilateral sanctions the West keeps on imposing on Syria, especially amid the pandemic. It is about the West’s stopping ignoring the need to create conditions for the return of refugees to Syria,” Lavrov explained.
The visit by the UAE foreign minister, whose country has forged close relations with the occupying regime of Israel, came after Syria’s air defenses repelled Israeli missiles attacking targets in the central and coastal regions of the country.
Syria’s official news agency SANA said the air defenses intercepted “hostile targets” over the countryside around the city of Homs after confirming that explosions were heard in Homs and the coastal city of Tartus.
Later on, the Syrian military confirmed the attack, saying in a statement that the airstrike was conducted by Israeli aircraft from north of the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
The Syrian military said most of the incoming Israeli missiles were shot down, adding that two Syrian soldiers were injured and there was some material damage.
The Lebanese media also said Israeli aircraft had been spotted over Lebanon shortly before the strikes were reported and that Syrian air defense system was activated to repel the aerial attacks.
The latest airstrike came less than a week after the Zionist regime launched a similar attack with a number of missiles targeting a site in the town of Zakia on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.
The Zionist regime frequently targets military positions inside Syria. Tel Aviv mostly keeps quiet about its attacks on Syrian territories, which many view as knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s increasing success in confronting terrorism.
The occupying regime of Israel has been a main supporter of terrorist groups that have opposed the government of President Assad over the past ten years.