Syria’s interim president heads to Saudi Arabia on first diplomatic trip abroad

Syria’s interim president made his first trip abroad Sunday, traveling to Saudi Arabia in a move likely trying to signal Damascus’s shift away from Iran as its main regional ally.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with al-Qaeda, traveled to Riyadh alongside his government’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani. A photo published by the state-run SANA news agency showed the two men on a jet, likely provided by the kingdom, with a Saudi flag visible on the table behind them.

Saudi state television trumpeted the fact that the first trip by al-Sharaa, first known internationally by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, would make Riyadh his first destination.

Saudi Arabia had been among the Arab nations that poured money into insurgent groups that tried to topple president Bashar al-Assad after Syria’s 2011 Arab Spring protests turned into a bloody crackdown. However, its groups found themselves beaten back as Assad, supported by Iran and Russia, fought the war into a stalemate in Syria.

That changed with the December lightning offensive led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The group was once affiliated with al-Qaeda but has since renounced its former ties.

Al-Sharaa and HTS have carefully managed their public image in the time since, with the interim president favoring an olive-colored military look similar to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, appointing women to roles and trying to maintain ties to Syria’s Christian and Shiite Alawite populations.