Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas 'to visit Assad soon'

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will join the queue of Arab authoritarian leaders rushing to rehabilitate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and visit Damascus soon

MENA

3 min read

Karim Traboulsi

15 January, 2019

Abbas' last visit to Damascus was in 2009 [Getty file photo]

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will join the queue of Arab authoritarian leaders rushing to rehabilitate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a visit to Damascus, an aide has told a pro-regime newspaper.

"The visit of President Abbas to Syria is possible at any time," Azzam al-Ahmad, a close aide to Abbas told Syrian pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan on Monday.

Ahmad, who is a PLO Executive Committee member, was in Damascus to take part in the opening ceremony of an office for the Palestinian Radio and TV Committee.

"President Abbas' visit (to Damascus)...will be soon, God willing," he added

"Syria is recovering, its choices remain clear and its compass still points towards Palestine".

The New Arab has contacted the office of President Abbas for comment but has not received a response at the time of publication.

Abbas' last visit to Syria took place in June 2009, two years before protests against the Assad regime kicked-off.

If confirmed, President Abbas would be the second Arab head of state to visit Damascus since the start of the Syrian conflict.

Sudan's authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir met with Assad in the Syrian capital in December, amid reports leaders from Iraq and Mauritaria would follow suit.

Abbas' Fatah faction, which rules in the West Bank, has remained friendly towards Assad while his rivals in the Hamas group, which dominates Gaza, broke ties with Syria in 2012.

As in many Arab states, the topic of relations with the Assad regime is divisive in Palestine following Syria's brutal repression of the rebellion that erupted in 2011. The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of lives, including a significant number of Palestinian refugees.

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Abbas' Fatah faction - which rules in the West Bank - has remained friendly towards Assad while his rivals in the Hamas group - which dominates Gaza - broke ties with Syria in 2012.

The Arab League suspended Syria's membership in November 2011 as the death toll of the regime crackdown on protesters mounted and several regional powers bet on the demise of the Assad regime.

But several Arab states are seeking to restore ties with Assad after his forces made decisive gains in the war, in a bid to expand their influence in the war-torn country.

Bahraini and Emirati embassies were re-opened in Damascus last month, with reports that Saudi Arabia might soon follow suit although Riyadh recently issued a denial.

For its part Qatar said on Monday it will not join other Gulf states in renewing ties with Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Normalisation (of relations) with the Syrian regime at this stage is the normalisation of a person involved in war crimes, and this should not be acceptable," Qatar's FM Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Thani told a press conference in Doha.

Syria's opposition leader Nasr al-Hariri has pleaded with Arab leaders not to rebuild relation with Assad.

Assad now controls around two-thirds of the country - following military backing from Russia and Iran - while rebel groups are holed up in Idlib and parts of Aleppo and Hama provinces.

Syria's war broke out in 2011, when regime forces brutally suppressed pro-democracy and reform demonstrations.

Agencies contributed to this story.

Follow Karim Traboulsi on Twitter @kareemios