A United Arab Emirates diplomat hailed Syrian President Bashar El Assad's "wise leadership," describing relations between the two Arab countries as "solid and special."
El Assad survived a massive uprising against his rule, that began in March 2011, and during which he allied with Russia and enhanced military cooperation, that helped, eventually, his regime to regain the vast majority of the territory.
Syria's opposition, is now largely confined to the northern Idlib province after losing its strongholds elsewhere.
The latest remarks was made by Charge d'affaires Abdul-Hakim Naimi during a ceremony held in Damascus, Monday to mark UAE's National Day.
In what seemed as a sign of mutual relations improvement, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus in December 2018 for the first time in seven years.
Naimi said he hopes that "peace, security and stability will prevail Syria under the shadow of the wise leadership" of El Assad.
On another hand, hundreds of Syrian refugees have reportedly headed home in the first batch to leave Lebanon since protests broke out in the small Arab country more than a month ago.
Scores of Syrians boarded buses in several locations in Lebanon before heading back to their hometowns in Syria.
in the early hours of Tuesday, Vanessa Moya of the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said some 225 Syrian refugees were scheduled to head back to Syria, raising the number to about 27,000 refugees who have returned to Syria over the past two years.
According to AP, thousands of Syrians have returned home from Lebanon since June 2018 as calm returns to parts of Syria.
Lebanon is hosting some 1 million Syrian refugees.
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