 "Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, right, welcomes Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, on Sunday, February 2, 2025. (Photo: AFP)")
Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit Turkey on Tuesday on his second international visit since the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December, the Turkish presidency said.
He went to Saudi Arabia on Sunday. War-ravaged Syria is looking to wealthy Gulf countries to finance reconstruction and revive its economy.
Sharaa “will pay a visit to Ankara on Tuesday at the invitation of our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Fahrettin Altun, head of communications at the presidency, said on X on Monday.
Turkey, which has had close ties with Sharaa, reopened its diplomatic mission in Syria and sent its spy chief and foreign minister for talks with the new leader soon after Assad was toppled by the Islamist-rooted HTS group.
Talks between Erdogan and Sharaa at the presidential palace in the capital Ankara will focus on “joint steps to be taken for economic recovery, sustainable stability and security” in Syria, Altun said.
“We believe that the Turkey-Syria relations, which were re-established after Syria regained its freedom, will be strengthened and gain dimension,” he added.