Overview

• Prince Faisal bin Farhan announced joint Saudi and Qatari funding for salaries of Syrian state employees during his May 31 meeting in Damascus.
• The foreign minister said sanctions lifted by the U.S., European Union and Britain earlier this month will help reactivate Syria’s stalled economy.
• Saudi business delegations are scheduled to travel to Syria to explore investments in energy, agriculture, infrastructure, information technology and telecommunications.
• Days before the visit, Syria signed a deal with Qatari, Turkish and U.S. firms to develop a 5,000-megawatt energy project aimed at rehabilitating its power grid.
• Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani described the talks as the start of a new era of regional economic cooperation under interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.