Iran's President Raisi Begins Landmark Visit to Syria

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Facts

• Iranian Pres. Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Damascus on Wednesday in an effort to bolster bilateral ties in the first visit by an Iranian head of state to Syria since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.¹
• Raisi, traveling with a large political and economic ministerial delegation, is set to hold 'extensive political and economic talks' with his counterpart Bashar al-Assad and sign several bilateral agreements, Syrian state media reported.²
• Raisi is the first Iranian president to travel to Syria since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the Arab country in September 2010. Raisi and Assad signed a memorandum covering collaboration on oil, transportation, and agriculture.³
• Raisi's visit comes amid recent rapprochement between Iran — a key military and economic ally of Syria — and its regional rival Saudi Arabia following years of strained relations and as Arab countries seek to resume ties with Damascus.⁴
• Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war that led to Syria's exclusion from the Arab League in 2011, close to 500K people have been killed, and half of Syria's pre-war population of 23M have been displaced.⁵
• Prior to Raisi's trip, Israel, for which Tehran's expanding regional footprint is a major concern, launched airstrikes on the international airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, reportedly killing one soldier and knocking the airport out of service.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Aa, ³France 24, ⁴Iran international, ⁵Independent and ⁶Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Tehran times. Raisi's landmark trip to Syria is a major victory for Iranian diplomacy in advancing the regional rapprochement process. Moreover, the normalization of Iran-Syria relations deals another blow to Washington and the Israeli regime and their attempts to bring Iran to its knees and plunge Syria into chaos through their proxy war. The joint reconstruction of Syria signals a new dawn and will have a positive impact on regional politico-economic integration.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Jerusalem post. Raisi's visit to Syria underscores Iran's autocratic plans to expand its regional influence at the expense of security and stability. While the Syrian regime seeks to normalize relations with the Arab world, Tehran is instrumentalizing Damascus to improve its ability to threaten Israel through its proxies, such as Hezbollah. The increasing rapprochement of regional rulers is a cause for concern for the US and Israel that needs to be closely monitored.

Predictions