RIYADH: A Saudi delegation has met Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, a source close to the government told AFP on Monday.
The delegation joins a list of visitors to the Syrian capital since the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, led by Sharaa, spearheaded the toppling of president Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
The “Saudi senior delegation met Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus yesterday discussing (the) Syria situation and captagon”, the source said, referring to the illegal synthentic stimulant that has flooded the region from Syria.
Saudi Arabia severed ties with Assad’s government in 2012 and backed Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow him early in the country’s civil war.
Qatar embassy reopens in Damascus with flag raising: AFP
But last year, Riyadh restored ties with Assad’s government and was instrumental in Syria’s return to the Arab League, ending its regional isolation.
Saudi Arabia has become a major market for captagon, an addictive drug for which there is huge demand in the fossil fuel-rich Gulf.
The amphetamine-like narcotic was Syria’s largest export under Assad, turning the country into one of the world’s biggest narco states.
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