UPDATE – Top delegations from Jordan, Qatar visit Damascus to meet Syria’s new administration leader

UPDATES WITH QATAR DELEGATION’S VISIT, CHANGES HEADLINE, ADDS DETAILS

By Laith Al-Jnaidi

AMMAN, Jordan (AA) – Top delegations from Jordan and Qatar visited Damascus on Monday for talks with the leader of Syria’s new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

A Jordanian Foreign Ministry statement said Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi “is currently holding extensive talks” with al-Sharaa, without giving further details.

Qatari Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mohammed al-Khulaifi also arrived in the Syrian capital, leading a high-level delegation.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said al-Khulaifi will hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials “to embody Qatar's firm position in providing all the support to the Syrian people.”

Al-Khulaifi arrived aboard a Qatar Airways plane, marking the first flight to from Doha to Damascus since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

In the past few days, al-Sharaa met with several foreign and Arab delegations in Damascus, including from the US and Saudi Arabia.

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime which had been in power since 1963.

The takeover came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters captured key cities in a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar