ALBAWABA - Syrian foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, is slated to meet his Tunisian counterpart, Nabil Ammar, during a two-day official visit to Tunisia.
The Syrian foreign minister will arrive in Tunisia on Monday on an official visit at the official invitation of his Tunisian counterpart, Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its official Facebook account.
The visit will take place from the 17th to the 19th of April. It will be the first visit by an official of the Syrian regime to Tunisia since relations between the two countries were severed more than 10 years ago.
The authorities of Syria and Tunisia indicated, in a joint statement, that "in response to the initiative of Tunisian President to appoint an ambassador for his country in Damascus, Syria decided to reopen its embassy in Tunisia and appoint an ambassador at its head, in the next few periods."
The Tunisian presidency had recently announced that Tunisian president had instructed foreign minister to initiate procedures for appointing an ambassador for his country in Damascus.
The Tunisian president Kais Saied said that there is no justification for not having an ambassador for Tunisia in Syria and an ambassador for Damascus in Tunisia.
Mekdad's visit to Tunisia comes "within the framework of keenness to restore bilateral relations to their normal course between the two countries."
The Syrian foreign minister's visit is supposed to enhance Damascus' openness to the Arab world after its isolation for more than ten years following the war in Syria, and it comes after his visit to Algeria, on Saturday.
Minister Mekdad is on a tour of Arab countries, which he started from Algeria, followed by Tunisia and then Iraq, aiming to strengthening relations with Arab countries.
The minister will discuss Arab views on Syria's return to the Arab League.
Diplomatic relations between Tunisia and Syria have been severed since Feb.4, 2012, by decision of former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, against the background of the war in Syria.
