TRIPOLI: Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani hailed on Sunday the reopening of his country’s embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli, which had been closed for more than a decade.

Shaibani was welcomed by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who leads the UN-recognized administration in Tripoli, and held talks with Taher Al-Baour, Libya’s acting foreign minister.

“Today, this embassy returns to reaffirm the importance and value of the Syrian-Libyan relationship,” Shaibani said.

Last year, a delegation from Damascus symbolically reopened the embassy, which was shut in 2012, but it did not immediately resume consular services.

Relations between the two countries had been upended by Syria’s civil war and the chaos that followed the fall of longtime Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi.

Syria’s new authorities took power in December 2024 when they ousted longtime ruler Bashar Assad after nearly 14 years of war.

“This embassy will handle the administrative follow-up for Syrians who took refuge in Libya during the years of war, at a time when there was no longer any diplomatic representation, since Tripoli had broken off relations with the former regime,” Shaibani said.

According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, the Syrian community in Libya is estimated at around 200,000 people.

Shaibani said the two countries “also agreed to strengthen security coordination to combat illegal immigration, as well as drugs and terrorist organizations.”