Syria's president to visit Turkey and UAE next week

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa will make his first visit to the United Arab Emirates and is also scheduled to visit Turkey next week, the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday, as he continues to garner support for the new administration.

Sharaa, who previously visited Turkey in February, will make the UAE his second Gulf destination after traveling to Saudi Arabia that same month on his first foreign trip since assuming the presidency in January.

He and other members of the new Syrian leadership have been working to strengthen ties with both Arab and Western leaders following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive in December, led by Sharaa's Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Sharaa and his officials have also called for a full lifting of sanctions on Syria.

Syria is in desperate need of sanctions relief to kick start an economy collapsed by nearly 14 years of war, during which the United States, the U.K. and Europe placed tough sanctions on people, businesses and whole sectors of Syria's economy in a bid to squeeze now-ousted leader Assad.