The Ghanaian Minaret

Makkah: Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, performed Umrah on Monday as part of his first state visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He was accompanied by the Deputy Emir of the Makkah region, Prince Saud Bin Mishal Bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who welcomed the former rebel leader at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on Monday.

Images circulating online had shown the Kingdom’s guest being granted the privilege of entering the Kaaba.

Al-Sharaa, born in Saudi Arabia, had early on met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Riyadh on Sunday on his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, in a sign of the major shifts under way in regional alliances.

Sharaa assumed power as transitional president last week after leading a rebel campaign that ousted long-time Iran-backed leader Bashar al-Assad, whose ties with the rest of the Arab world were strained throughout the nearly 14-year Syrian war.

Sharaa said in a written statement that he had discussed humanitarian and economic cooperation with the Crown Prince, as well as “extensive future plans in the fields of energy, technology, education, and health.”.

A statement by the Saudi state news agency said the pair had discussed improving bilateral ties and regional developments.

Sharaa and other new Syrian officials have sought to strengthen ties with Arab and Western leaders since Assad’s fall.

Saudi Arabia has played a leading role in that effort, hosting Syria’s new foreign and defence ministers in early January and a meeting of Syrian, Arab, and Western officials later that month.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani was the first head of state to visit the Syrian capital after Assad was ousted in December.

The warming ties with Arab leaders represent a major shift away from the situation under Assad, whose brutal crackdown on protests in 2011 led to the Arab League suspending Syria’s membership for more than a decade.

Saudi Arabia tried to end Assad’s isolation by welcoming him back into the Arab League in 2023, hoping his reintegration would encourage him to address their concerns.