WNAM REPORT: The leadership of Qatar has decided to resume work of the emirate’s embassy in Damascus, which was closed in 2011, from Tuesday, December 17, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar reported.
“The State of Qatar announced the resumption of work of its embassy in the brotherly Syrian Arab Republic starting from Tuesday,” the ministry said a statement on the social network X.
As the ministry notes, “the resumption of work of the embassy in Damascus occurs approximately 13 years after the severance of diplomatic relations in 2011” with the former government of Syria and “is an expression of fundamental support for the revolution of the Syrian people” on the part of Qatar.
Khalifa Abdullah Al Mahmoud Al Sharif, who headed the Africa Department of the Qatari Foreign Ministry, has been appointed as Qatar’s Charge d’Affaires in Syria. Al Sharif previously worked in the Office of the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, and the emirate’s embassies in Portugal and South Africa.
On Sunday, Adviser to the Prime Minister and Official Representative of the Qatari Foreign Ministry Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari reported that a Qatari diplomatic delegation had arrived in Damascus to complete the procedure for resuming the embassy’s work. On December 10, Al Ansari, answering a question from TASS, said that the restoration of the Qatari embassy in Damascus after the change of power was a “technical solution.”
At a briefing at the emirate’s Foreign Ministry, he noted that Qatar was the only country in the world where the Syrian embassy was represented by the opposition, and after the change of power in the republic, Doha became the first capital where the diplomatic mission of the new Syrian authorities actually began operating.
Syria’s armed opposition units launched a large-scale offensive on government troops in the Aleppo and Idlib governorates on November 27. Late on December 7, they seized several large cities, including Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, and Homs.
On December 8, they entered Damascus while government troops withdrew from the city. The head of the Syrian government, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, expressed his readiness for a peaceful transfer of power in the country. According to a statement from the Russian foreign ministry, Bashar Assad resigned as president of Syria and fled the country, instructing for the peaceful transfer of power.
On December 10, Mohammed al-Bashir, who had led the so-called Syrian Salvation Government in the Idlib governorate, announced his appointment as head of Syria’s interim government, saying that the transitional period will last until March 1, 2025.
