Syria is emerging from a decade of isolation and Damascus is once again receiving major international visits. Iran’s president Ibrahim Raisi on Wednesday embarked on an official two-day trip symbolizing “the strategic victory” of the Islamic republic, Raisi’s adviser, Mohammad Jamshidi, told the official Irna news agency. Along with Russia, Iran has been one of Bashar al-Assad’s main military allies since the outbreak of war in 2011, and this support has helped the Syrian leader stay in power after a conflict that left more than 300,000 dead. according to UN estimates, half of the population is internally displaced or refugees to other countries. Raisi and Al-Assad met to sign a strategic plan for long-term cooperation that covers much-needed fields in Syria, such as electricity and oil. The president expressed his gratitude and assured that his government and his nation will never forget “the Iranian brothers”. Raisi applauded his host’s resistance and his “victory in the fight against terrorism” despite Western threats and sanctions. This is the first visit by an Iranian leader in thirteen years. Then it was the ultra-conservative Mahmud Ahmadinejad who met with Al-Assad. It is the first visit by an Iranian president in thirteen years, when the ultra-conservative Mahmud Ahmadinejad was present reaches. This visit to Damascus is also a direct message to Israel, a neighboring country that has carried out hundreds of attacks in recent years against targets linked to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia deployed on Syrian territory. These are operations that the Israelis do not officially confirm or deny. The Arab country has become a new area of operations for some Iranians who have found another base on the borders of the Jewish state, raising the threat level along with Lebanon and Gaza. Religious agenda In addition to political rallies, Raisi has a religious agenda, including visits to Sayida Zeinab and Sayida Ruqayya shrines, both holy sites in Shiite Islam, the majority in Iran. Thousands of Persian pilgrims travel to these holy sites every year, journeys that did not stop even in the bloodiest years of the Syrian conflict. In 2017, at least forty believers were killed in an attack on the buses they used to go to these temples. They were Shiites from Iraq. The Middle East is going through days of great change since Iran and Saudi Arabia announced they were restoring diplomatic ties, broken since 2016. This move has multiple effects on different levels. One is Syria, a country that seceded from the Arab League in 2011 and could be re-accepted at the 19th summit in Riyadh. European and American resistance to the normalization of relations with al-Assad is having no bearing in a region that is increasingly looking to Russia and China.
Source: La Verdad
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