Syrian President visits UAE after 11 years, slams US State Department

Dubai/Washington: – Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. This is the first visit of the Syrian President to UAE since 2011. Therefore, the Middle East media are claiming that Syria and UAE, which were opposed to each other, are making efforts to establish fresh cooperation. But the United States has criticised the visit of the Syrian President to UAE. The United States gave a reaction saying that the UAE stand has come as a major disappointment.

Arab Spring agitation had flared up in the Arab-Middle East countries in 2011. The military of the ruling government of Bashar Al-Assad took very violent action to crush the agitation. This built an armed resistance against the Assad regime in Syria. After Russia and Iran jumped into the conflict to defend the Assad regime, the United States, European countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other Arab countries declared support for the armed rebels.

After that, Saudi and UAE banned Syria from the organisations of Arab-Middle East and Islamic countries. This led to the straining of relations between Syria and the Arab countries. But since the last few months, Saudi and UAE have initiated renewed efforts to establish ties with the neighbouring Arab countries. A few days ago, UAE established a dialogue with Qatar and Turkey. Whereas the Syrian President reached UAE on Friday.

The Syrian President met UAE Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. As per local media, long and detailed discussions were held between the leaders to re-establish cooperation between the two countries. A reaction has been received from the United States over this.

Ned Price, the spokesman of the US state department, criticised that UAE has supported the massacre of the Syrian population at the hands of Assad by holding talks with him. At the same time, Price appealed that UAE should think once again regarding the decision to establish ties with Syria.

Meanwhile, lawmakers and analysts from the United States are criticising that the US allies in the Middle East are losing confidence in the United States given the stand of the Biden administration regarding Iran. The US analysts are warning that the Middle Eastern countries are building an independent front leaving out the United States.