(Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates foreign minister arrived in Damascus Tuesday in the first visit to Syria by a top Emirati official in a decade, according to media reports, the latest sign of improving ties.

UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan landed in Damascus accompanied by a Gulf delegation, said Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV, which is run by Hezbollah, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The channel said the minister was expected to meet with Assad and other Syrian officials. Syrian newspaper Al-Watan reported that the foreign minister had arrived in the capital, citing unofficial sources.

The UAE Foreign Ministry declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg. 

Syria, backed by the UAE’s regional rival Iran, has been a pariah in the Arab world since the breakout of its civil war in 2011, when Gulf states aided rebels fighting to oust Assad. 

The UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus in December 2018. It’s now aiming to bring Syria back into the Arab fold and has been lobbying for the country’s re-admission into the Arab League. Last month, economy ministers from the two countries met on the sidelines of the Dubai Expo trade fair.

“Assad has won and he’s here to stay. Nobody is going to dislodge him now, so you might as well square with the facts on the ground and mend fences with him,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a UAE political science professor. 

“A complete and total rupture of Syria’s relations with Iran isn’t what the UAE is hoping for,” he said. “But having less of Iran in Syria, and more of an Arab presence in Damascus, can be done.”

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