RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Dec 23, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A Saudi delegation has met 
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, a source close to the 
government told AFP on Monday.

The delegation joins a list of visitors to the Syrian capital since the 
Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, led by Sharaa, spearheaded the 
toppling of president Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

The "Saudi senior delegation met Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus yesterday 
discussing (the) Syria situation and captagon", the source said, referring to 
the illegal synthentic stimulant that has flooded the region from Syria.

Saudi Arabia severed ties with Assad's government in 2012 and backed Syrian 
rebels seeking to overthrow him early in the country's civil war.

But last year, Riyadh restored ties with Assad's government and was 
instrumental in Syria's return to the Arab League, ending its regional 
isolation.

Saudi Arabia has become a major market for captagon, an addictive drug for 
which there is huge demand in the fossil fuel-rich Gulf.

The amphetamine-like narcotic was Syria's largest export under Assad, turning 
the country into one of the world's biggest narco states.