First International Commercial Flight Lands in Syrian Capital Since Assad's Ouster

Damascus: The first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad landed at Damascus airport on Tuesday. The flight, which arrived from Qatar, marks a significant step toward the resumption of regular international flights to Syria.

According to Jordan’s state-run news agency, a Royal Jordanian Airlines plane also took off for Damascus on a test flight. This was part of efforts to evaluate the airport’s readiness for resuming international flights.

Capt. Haitham Misto, head of the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, was on board the test flight with a team of specialists. He stated that the flight’s purpose was to assess the technical condition of the Damascus airport ahead of the potential restoration of regular air services.

Since the lightning rebel offensive that unseated Assad a month ago, Arab and Western countries that had cut off relations with the former government have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria's new de facto authorities, headed by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

Syria's new foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, has travelled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in recent days. The Gulf countries are likely to be key to funding Syria's reconstruction after nearly 14 years of civil war that preceded Assad's ouster.

On Tuesday, al-Shibani travelled to Jordan to meet with his counterpart in Amman. The Jordanian foreign ministry said that the officials were set to discuss “mechanisms of cooperation in many areas including borders, security, energy, transportation, water, trade and other vital sectors.” Under Assad's rule, Jordan had been a main conduit for smuggling highly addictive Captagon amphetamines produced in Syria into Gulf states, which was a point of tension between the two countries.

Syria's new authorities have made a show of cracking down on the Captagon trade, dismantling former factories in locations including the Mazzeh air base in Damascus, a car trading company in Latakia and a factory that once made snack chips in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

(with agency inputs)