ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - For the first time in 13 years, Qatar has decided to reopen its embassy in the Syrian capital city Damascus on Tuesday, following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, the Gulf country announced in a statement late on Sunday.
"Qatar announces the resumption of the work of its embassy in the sisterly Syrian Arab Republic starting the day after tomorrow, Tuesday,” the Qatari foreign ministry said.
It added that the return after a 13-year hiatus was "an expression of the State of Qatar's principled stand with the Syrian people's revolution.”
Qatar's embassy in Damascus had been closed since July 2011, when it withdrew its ambassador from Damascus after a series of deadly crackdowns by Assad's regime on protesters.
The Assad family’s five decades of rule spectacularly came to an end a week ago, as a result of an 11-day sweeping offensive led by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Unlike other Arab countries, Qatar never restored diplomatic ties with Syria under Assad.
Soon after the Damascus regime's downfall, opposition groups formed an interim government that would last until March 1 under Mohammed al-Bashir's leadership.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told the official Qatar News Agency on Sunday that a Qatari delegation was in Syria to meet with officials in the transitional government.
Other governments that opposed Assad's rule, including Turkey and the United States, have said they too had established contacts with the ruling rebel group HTS.
But neighboring Iraq has said it would not engage with the armed groups currently in charge of Syria.
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