Qatari Emir meets with Syria's de facto president in landmark visit to Damascus

Doha has restarted discussions to revive the Qatar–Turkiye Natural Gas Pipeline project, which was shelved over a decade ago and helped spark the Gulf and US-backed war in Syria  

News Desk - The Cradle

On 30 January, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani became the first Arab head of state to visit Syria since the ousting of the former government in an armed coup led by former ISIS and Al-Qaeda commander Ahmad al-Sharaa.

According to Qatari media, Al-Thani congratulated Sharaa on his recent appointment as transitional president of Syria and on “the victory of the Syrian revolution.”

“Discussions during the meeting focused on the latest developments in Syria and ways to strengthen relations between the two countries in various fields for the benefit, good, and development of the two brotherly peoples. The two sides also touched on the latest regional and international developments of mutual interest,” the reports stated.

Al-Thani led a high-level delegation, including Minister of Finance Ali bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari, Minister of Education Lolwah bint Rashid bin Mohammed Al-Khater, and Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi.

Earlier in the day, during a press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Asaad al-Shibani, Al-Khulaifi said that the “Syrian people have given an inspiring lesson in resilience, showing what it means never to give up or surrender.” He added that the two sides held talks on “establishing a comprehensive framework for bilateral cooperation in Syria’s reconstruction efforts,” including in the infrastructure, investment, and banking services sectors.

For many years, Doha was a leading supporter of Sharaa – then known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani – and his Al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The Gulf monarchy was one of the first countries to express support for Damascus after the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad in December.

Under the direction of the US, Qatar provided weapons and funding to HTS, previously known as the Nusra Front, in an effort to topple the Syrian government starting in 2011.

In 2016, WikiLeaks released an email from former US state secretary Hillary Clinton about Saudi and Qatari funding for ISIS.

“We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Clinton's email reads.

Following the ascension of Sharaa to power, discussions about reviving the Qatar–Turkiye Natural Gas Pipeline, which was shelved in 2009, reemerged. At the time, Qatar wished to export some of its vast natural gas reserves to European markets via Turkiye. However, the planned route through Syria was not realized due to the Syrian government's opposition to the project.

Along with the US, Israel, Turkiye, and Saudi Arabia, Qatar sought to topple the Syrian government by flooding the country with Al-Qaeda-linked militants in early 2011.