Iran’s president will visit Syria’s Damascus in first such visit since 2011

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Damascus next week, a senior regional source close to the Syrian government told Reuters on Friday.

The visit will be the first by an Iranian president to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since war broke out in Syria in 2011. With military help and economic support, Assad was able to turn the tide of the conflict and regain control of most of his country.

The Syrian daily al-Watan, which is close to the government, reported that Raisi’s visit would last two days and would be capped by a string of agreements, particularly on economic cooperation.

Iran has previously provided lines of credit to Damascus and imports phosphate from Syrian mines.