The primary worldwide industrial flight for the reason that fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has landed on the Damascus airport.
The Qatar Airways flight landed at Damascus Worldwide Airport on Tuesday, greeted by the passengers’ family members and mates inside a terminal constructing.
Ashad al-Suleibi, head of Syria’s Air Transport Authority, mentioned Qatar had offered help in rehabilitating the airport, which had suffered from years of neglect in addition to sustaining damages from periodic Israeli air strikes.
“There was loads of injury from the [al-Assad] regime to this full of life space and this full of life airport and likewise the Aleppo airport,” he mentioned.
Many passengers had been Syrian nationals coming again for the primary time in additional than a decade.
Osama Musalama, who got here from the US, mentioned it was his first go to since earlier than the civil struggle that began in 2011.
“I misplaced hope that I might come again to Syria,” he mentioned. “We had been ready for this second and misplaced hope, however thank God now the nation is again to its individuals.”
Individually, Jordanian state-run Petra information company reported {that a} Royal Jordanian Airways airplane departed for Damascus on a take a look at flight.
The pinnacle of Jordan’s Civil Aviation Regulatory Fee, Haitham Misto, who was on board the flight with a crew of specialists, mentioned that the goal was to judge the technical situation of Damascus airport earlier than resuming common flights.
Because the lightning insurgent offensive that toppled al-Assad a month in the past, Arab and Western nations that had minimize off relations with the previous authorities have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria’s new de facto authorities, headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
‘Safety, stability, sovereignty’
Syria’s new international minister, Asaad al-Shibani, has travelled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in current days. The Gulf nations are prone to be key to funding Syria’s reconstruction after practically 14 years of civil struggle that preceded al-Assad’s ouster.
On Tuesday, al-Shibani travelled to Jordan to satisfy together with his counterpart in Amman. Jordan’s Overseas Ministry mentioned the officers had been set to debate “mechanisms of cooperation in lots of areas together with borders, safety, vitality, transportation, water, commerce and different very important sectors”.
Underneath al-Assad’s rule, Jordan had been a major conduit for smuggling extremely addictive Captagon amphetamines produced in Syria into Gulf states, which was a degree of stress between the 2 nations.
Syria’s new authorities have made a present of cracking down on the Captagon commerce, dismantling former factories in areas together with the Mezzeh air base in Damascus, a automotive buying and selling firm in Latakia and a manufacturing facility that after made snack chips within the Damascus suburb of Douma.
“The brand new scenario in Syria has additionally ended the threats that beforehand threatened the safety of the Kingdom [of Jordan], with regard to medicine and Captagon, and we pledge that this factor has ended and won’t return once more,” al-Shibani mentioned in a joint information convention with Jordanian Overseas Minister Ayman al-Safadi.
Al-Safadi mentioned that his nation helps the Syrian individuals as they work to “rebuild their homeland on the foundations that protect its safety, stability, sovereignty and unity and fulfill the rights of its individuals”, including that Jordan is “prepared to offer electrical energy to our brothers instantly, and we’re additionally able to work collectively to offer fuel”.
Syria, focused by stringent Western sanctions, has been in a protracted financial disaster. Syrians obtain only some hours of state-provided electrical energy every day.
Individually, al-Shibani mentioned on the joint information convention that the authorities in Syria are anticipated to arrange an inclusive committee to organize for a “nationwide dialogue convention” to debate the way forward for the nation.
He mentioned that the interim authorities had initially supposed to carry the convention in early January, however as a substitute, “we selected to kind an expanded preparation committee” that will meet at an unspecified date.
The committee would “embody women and men… in a position to totally characterize the Syrian individuals” throughout “all segments of Syrian society and provinces”, the international minister mentioned.
