Syria's president visits Saudi Arabia on Sunday, first trip abroad after Assad's fall

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported on Saturday, citing sources.

It will be Sharaa's first official visit abroad since he assumed power after leading a rebel campaign that ousted Bashar al-Assad in December.

Sharaa, an Islamist who was once an affiliate of al Qaeda, has been trying to gain support from Arab and Western leaders since former Syrian President Assad was toppled.

The Saudi foreign minister visited Damascus on Jan. 24 and said the kingdom was engaged in talks with Europe and the U.S. to help lift economic sanctions imposed on Syria that had decimated its economy.

Arab countries have historically been concerned about Syria's production and trade of captagon, an amphetamine-like drug used in the oil-producing Gulf states by party-goers and labourers alike.

Western anti-narcotics officials said that captagon has for years been mass-produced in Syria and that Jordan is a transit route to the Gulf countries.

The new Syrian Foreign Minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, told his Jordanian counterpart on Jan. 7 that drug smuggling would not pose a threat to Jordan under Syria's new Islamist rulers.

REUTERS