his head Egyptian diplomat Sameh Shukri arrived in Damascus today as part of efforts to thaw relations between Syria and Arab countries after the earthquake in Syria and neighboring Turkey.

Shukri’s visit expresses “solidarity with Syria in the face of the consequences of the earthquake,” Syria’s official news agency Sana reported, adding that the Egyptian official was received at Damascus International Airport by his colleague Faisal al-Moqdad.

Syrian Foreign Minister Dr. Faisal Mikdad receives His Excellency Sameh Shukri, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt in Damascus. pic.twitter.com/ki2NuE3iJ9

– Spokesperson for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry (@MfaEgypt) February 27, 2023

Shukri’s visit to Syria, who will also visit Turkey, “is a message of Egypt’s solidarity to these two brotherly countries after the earthquake” on February 6 that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt.

Cairo’s diplomatic relations with the two countries were frosty for a decade.

After the earthquake, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. It was an unprecedented conversation between the heads of the two states.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP, Reuters.}