Last month, a Saudi delegation met Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, a source close to the Saudi government told AFP at the time. Sharaa heads the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that led the rebel offensive that ousted Assad on December 8.

A high-level delegation from Syria's transitional government visited Saudi Arabia on Thursday, marking their first foreign trip and signalling a warming of ties with the oil-rich monarchy. The team, including Syria's newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani,

Shibani, visits Saudi Arabia, the first foreign trip by Syria’s new leadership following their rise to power last month.

Foreign and defence ministers arrive in Riyadh as Gulf states move to embrace new rulers

The Saudi trip comes amid a wider reset of ties since last month’s overthrow of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was isolated from many other Gulf nations due to Assad’s human rights abuses during the Syrian civil war.

Ministers from Syria’s transitional government held talks in Saudi Arabia on Thursday on their first foreign visit since they toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last month. “Through this first visit in the history of free Syria,