Three sources claimed Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to restore their embassies after over a decade, a major step toward Damascus’s return to the Arab fold.

Contacts between Riyadh and Damascus had gathered momentum following a landmark agreement to reestablish ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, a regional source aligned with Damascus said.

Once Syria’s civil conflict began in 2011, several Western and Arab powers abandoned Assad, which Riyadh and Damascus spurned.

“Preparing to reopen embassies after Eid al-Fitr,” a second Damascus-aligned regional source told Reuters.

One regional source and a Gulf diplomat said negotiations in Saudi Arabia with a top Syrian intelligence officer led to the decision.

The Saudi foreign ministry, information office, and Syrian government did not comment.

A Saudi foreign ministry official told Saudi state television that discussions were underway to reestablish consular services with Syria.

Due to topic sensitivity, informants talked anonymously.

The abrupt breakthrough may suggest how Iran and Riyadh’s pact may affect other regional problems, where their antagonism has fueled wars like Syria’s.

The U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Qatar supported certain Syrian rebels. However, Shi’ite Iran and Russia helped Assad destroy the rebellion in much of Syria.

The United States, an ally of Saudi Arabia, has opposed moves by regional countries to normalize ties with Assad, citing his government’s brutality during the conflict and the need to see progress toward a political solution.

When asked about the rapprochement, a State Department spokesperson said that the U.S. “stance on normalisation remains unchanged” and would not encourage other countries to normalize ties with Assad.

Another U.S. ally, the UAE, recently hosted Assad and his wife in Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia is far more cautious.

The Gulf diplomat said the high-ranking Syrian intelligence official “stayed for days” in Riyadh, and an agreement was struck to reopen embassies “very soon.”

One regional source named Hussam Louqa leads Syria’s intelligence committee. It claimed topics addressed security on Syria’s border with Jordan and the smuggling of captagon, an amphetamine popular in the Arab Gulf, from Syria.

Assad’s brutal protest crackdown led to Syria’s 2011 Arab League suspension.

This month, Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said discussion with Assad may lead to Syria’s readmission to the Arab League, but it was too early to talk.

The diplomat claimed Syrian-Saudi negotiations might lead to a vote to lift Syria’s suspension at the next Arab summit in Saudi Arabia in April.

In 2018, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus, stating Arab countries required stronger involvement in settling the Syrian war.

While Assad has basked in newfound connections with Arab governments that formerly spurned him, U.S. sanctions remain a key complicating issue for countries trying to deepen trade ties.