Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Damascus on Friday, marking Abbas’s first visit to the Syrian capital in nearly 16 years.
Al-Sharaa greeted Abbas at the entrance of the Presidential Palace, and the two leaders walked side by side along a red carpet, according to an AFP correspondent.
Al-Sharaa held talks with Abbas and his accompanying delegation on Friday in Damascus, in the presence of Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, the presidency said.
The visit is Abbas’s first to Syria since June 2009 and aims to discuss ways to strengthen Palestinian-Syrian ties, ease administrative procedures for Palestinians living in Syria, and address shared security concerns, a Syrian government source told AFP.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), around 560,000 Palestinians lived in Syria before the outbreak of conflict in 2011. The agency now estimates that number at about 438,000, with more than 40% internally displaced.
Abbas’s visit to Damascus carries exceptional significance due to the complex Palestinian landscape in Syria, observers in the capital told Germany’s DPA news agency.
Analysts noted that the visit comes against the backdrop of a sensitive file involving Palestinian factions that were previously aligned with the former regime and have since had their offices and military posts shut down.
Abbas is expected to raise several key issues, including bilateral relations, the situation of Palestinians in Syria—whose number is currently estimated at more than half a million—and the reconstruction of Yarmouk camp, widely considered the capital of the Palestinian diaspora.
Abbas is accompanied by Hussein al-Sheikh, Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, and committee member Ahmad Majdalani. It is his first trip to Syria since President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024.
His last visit to Damascus was in 2009, when he met Assad as part of a regional tour that also included Saudi Arabia.
In the years following Syria’s civil war, Abbas maintained indirect contact with Damascus, sending messages to Assad through Palestinian officials—the most recent in June 2024.
