The first international flight after the removal of al-Assad landed in Syria Syrian war news

The first international commercial flight after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad landed at Damascus airport.

The Qatar Airways plane landed at the Damascus International Airport on Tuesday, and it was welcomed in the terminal building by relatives and friends of the passengers.

Ashad al-Suleibi, head of Syria’s Civil Aviation Authority, said Qatar had provided assistance in rebuilding the airport, which had been neglected for years and had suffered damage from occasional Israeli airstrikes.

“There was a lot of damage from [al-Assad] regime for this vibrant area and this vibrant airport and also the airport in Aleppo,” he said.

Many of the passengers were Syrian nationals returning for the first time in more than a decade.

Osama Musalama, who came from the United States, said it was his first visit since before the civil war that began in 2011.

“I have lost hope of returning to Syria,” he said. “We waited for this moment and lost hope, but thank God now the land has returned to its people.”

Meanwhile, Jordan’s state news agency Petra reported that a Royal Jordanian Airlines plane had taken off for Damascus on a test flight.

The head of Jordan’s Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, Haitham Misto, who was on the flight with a team of experts, said the aim was to assess the technical condition of the Damascus airport before resuming regular flights.

Since the lightning offensive by rebels that ousted al-Assad a month ago, Arab and Western countries that severed ties with the former government have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria’s new de facto government, led by Ahmed al-Shara of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ( HTS).

‘Security, stability, sovereignty’

The new Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asaad al-Shibani, traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in recent days. The Gulf countries are likely to be key in financing the reconstruction of Syria after nearly 14 years of civil war that preceded the ouster of al-Assad.

On Tuesday, al-Shibani traveled to Jordan to meet his counterpart in Amman. Jordan’s foreign ministry said officials were ready to discuss “cooperation mechanisms in many areas including borders, security, energy, transport, water, trade and other vital sectors.”

Under al-Assad’s rule, Jordan was the main channel for smuggling the highly addictive Captagon amphetamines produced in Syria into the Gulf countries, a point of tension between the two countries.

The new Syrian authorities made a show of cracking down on the Captagon trade, dismantling former factories at locations including the Mezzeh air base in Damascus, a car dealership in Latakia and a factory that once produced snacks in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

“The new situation in Syria has also ended the threats that previously threatened the security of the Kingdom [of Jordan]with regard to drugs and Captagon, and we guarantee that this matter is over and will not return,” al-Shibani said at a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi.

Al-Safadi said his country supports the Syrian people as they work to “rebuild their homeland on foundations that preserve its security, stability, sovereignty and unity and fulfill the rights of its people,” adding that Jordan is “ready to provide electricity to our brothers immediately , and we are ready to work together on gas supply”.

Syria, which is the target of severe Western sanctions, is in a long-term economic crisis. Syrians get only a few hours of government-provided electricity every day.

Separately, al-Shibani told a joint press conference that Syrian authorities are expected to establish an inclusive committee to prepare a “national dialogue conference” to discuss the country’s future.

He said the interim authorities originally intended to hold the conference in early January, but instead “we decided to form an expanded preparatory committee” to meet at an unspecified date.

The committee would “include men and women… capable of fully representing the Syrian people” in “all segments of Syrian society and provinces,” the foreign minister said.