The UAE has sent medical aid to war-torn Syria as a goodwill gesture. The latter, which was already ravaged by war, is now falling to pieces due to the global pandemic and the recession.
Syria has been in loggerheads with UAE since 2011 when the civil war broke out in the country. Following a nine-year silence, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan spoke on the phone in March for the first time. The leaders from UAE have finally reached out to Syria and have sent assistance after this correspondence. The first load that got delivered on Monday contained medicine, ventilators and disinfectant.
Prince Mohammed took to Twitter and assured Assad of “the support of the UAE and its willingness to help the Syrian people” combat COVID-19. He has also added that the UAE will be assisting Syria in every which way possible to help the country out of the economic crisis. This comes after the reopening of the Syrian embassy in Damascus in 2018.
Syria has been coronavirus in the areas under its control. The country reported 2,703 cases of COVID-19 and 109 deaths until now. However, medics and residents say the real number of cases in the war-battered country is likely to be much higher.