United Arab Emirates diplomat Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Syrian President Bashar Assad to discuss relations amid conflict within Syria. There is no evident tension between the powers and their relationship continues to improve through scheduled meetings and diplomatic ties (the last meeting having taken place in November 2021). They allegedly discussed strengthening economic ties between their respective nations. Assad was quoted to have claimed that boosting relations would improve national security between both countries. Abdullah was quoted for supporting the notion of a political solution to conflict within Syria.
By visiting Syria for diplomacy, the UAE expresses its eagerness to improve relations with Syria. The UAE hasn’t met with any other countries except for Russia and Iran in the past several years, even going so far as to reopen their Syrian embassy in 2018. Syria, in its current war-torn state, is not necessarily an optimal ally to have at the moment. The UAE’s attempts to reach out is much more than most other countries, and likely comes from a place of insecurity. Reconstruction will cost billions of dollars, and if the UAE gets any closer to Syria they will likely be drawn into the expensive efforts. This also puts them at risk of facing backlash from countries that have sanctions on Syria at the moment, such as the US and other western countries. Although the war is at somewhat of a stalemate, this is only due to support from Russia and Iran (countries that aren’t doing so well on the world scale). Despite this, the UAE sees lessened conflict as an opportunity to build connections. This indicates that Arab countries might be considering reintroducing Syria back into the Arab League.
Diplomatic relations are reflective of the liberal theory that we’ve learned about in class, and the UAE’s instigation of such meetings demonstrates the effectiveness of diplomacy as their relationship with Syria continues to improve.