As Arab states have increasingly been warming ties with Bashar Assad after concluding that he has effectively won a brutal decadelong civil war, Syria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday signed a deal for the construction of a solar power plant near Damascus, state media reported.
The accord comes two days after UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Assad in Damascus, in the first such visit since the start of Syria’s war.
The visit was widely seen as a sign of regional efforts to end Assad’s diplomatic isolation as Syria grapples with a spiraling economic crisis caused by years of conflict and compounded by Western sanctions.
“The ministry of electricity and a consortium of Emirati firms have signed a cooperation agreement to establish a solar power plant with a 300-megawatt capacity,” in the suburbs of Damascus, the official SANA news agency said.
The Syrian regime initially approved the project last month, with Economy Minister Samer al-Khalil calling it a positive sign for future investments in Syria.
