Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has met with Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. On the agenda is, among other things, the rebuilding of Syria.
Images from the meeting show Fidan and al-Sharaa hugging and shaking hands. Turkey has long been a critic of Assad's regime and has backed the opposition.
On Sunday, al-Sharaa also announced that Syria will not interfere with Lebanon's development. Instead, Syria will respect its neighboring country's sovereignty, he said to the Druze leader Walid and Taymur Jumblatt on site in Damascus.
Walid Jumblatt is the first Lebanese politician to meet with al-Sharaa since his Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel groups overthrew Syria's long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad earlier in December.
