Syria’s Sharaa looks to boost ties with Turkey, Azerbaijan during Antalya visit

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and pushed for trilateral cooperation with Turkey and Azerbaijan on Friday at a forum in the Turkish city of Antalya. He also held his first meeting with Libya’s prime minister since taking power.

Sharaa is visiting Turkey to participate in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum that will run until Sunday. He met Aliyev on the sidelines of the meeting, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.

The official Azerbaijani Press Agency reported that Sharaa and Aliyev discussed opportunities to work together on energy, infrastructure and security, as well as the “potential for developing a trilateral cooperation framework between Azerbaijan, Syria, and Turkiye.” Sharaa accepted an invitation to visit Azerbaijan, according to the agency.

Sharaa also met with Kosovo's president, Vjosa Osmani.

Kosovo and Syria did not have formal diplomatic relations under former President Bashar al-Assad. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 — a move opposed by Russia but backed by several Western states.

Later on Friday, Sharaa met with Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, as well as Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, SANA reported. 

The official Libyan News Agency reported that Sharaa and Dbeibeh agreed to launch a joint committee to promote bilateral cooperation and regulate the status of Syrians residing in Libya. 

Why it matters: Azerbaijan and Syria enjoyed cordial relations under Assad, but ties could improve now that Sharaa is in power. Azerbaijan is close to Turkey, which backed some of the rebel groups that helped overthrow Assad in December alongside Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Turkey has moved to strengthen ties with Syria since Sharaa took power and hosted the former rebel leader in February.

On Wednesday, Azerbaijan hosted the first round of deconfliction talks between Turkey and Israel. The two countries are at odds over Syria, because Israel is concerned about Turkey’s growing presence in the country.

Azerbaijan is rich in oil and was the 19th-largest exporter of crude petroleum in 2023, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Syria’s ability to refine its own crude oil has been severely weakened by the civil war that ended last December, and the country is suffering from fuel shortages. War-era US sanctions that target Syria’s energy industry, among other sectors, remain in place.

In late March, two sanctioned tankers neared Syria to offload Russian oil, Reuters reported at the time.

The Syrian government, which is dominated by HTS and other Islamist former rebels, has repeatedly called for the sanctions to be lifted.

Sharaa's meeting with Dbeibeh was his first with the Libyan leader. In December, Libyan Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Ellafi led a delegation to Damascus to meet with Sharaa and establish ties with the new government. Libya was one of the first countries to recognize the Syrian opposition at the start of the civil war in 2011. Longtime Libyan leader Moammar al-Gadhafi was overthrown that year in an uprising. 

Know more: Arab diplomats including Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty gathered in Antalya on Friday for a meeting of the Gaza Contact Group. The officials were joined by representatives from the European Union, China and Russia, and discussed efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency reported.

What’s next: Sharaa will reportedly visit the United Arab Emirates after Turkey. It would be his first trip to the Gulf state since becoming president.