Qatari emir to visit Syria on Thursday: Al Jazeera sources

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s visit will be the first by an Arab leader to Damascus since fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will on Thursday be the first Arab leader to visit the Syrian capital Damascus since the December overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad, sources have told Al Jazeera.

The Syrian presidency confirmed on Wednesday that the country’s transitional leader Ahmed al-Sharaa would meet the Qatari emir on Thursday.

The two countries have strengthened their ties following al-Assad’s fall.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani previously met al-Sharaa on January 16 in Damascus, and in December Qatar reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital after it was closed in July 2011, soon after the beginning of the Syrian revolution, in which Qatar backed the country’s opposition.

Doha also played host to the new Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani earlier this month.

The Gulf state has focused its efforts in Syria on the humanitarian front, and has continued to send urgent humanitarian aid to Damascus since al-Assad’s fall.

Syrian opposition factions, led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took control of Damascus on December 8 after a rapid advance across the country that led to the collapse of al-Assad’s regime, after 61 years of Baath party rule and 53 years of rule by a member of the al-Assad family.