Syria has formally reopened its embassy in Tripoli, Libya's capital, after more than 14 years of closure, in a ceremony marking what officials on both sides described as the start of a new era in relations between the two countries. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani travelled to Tripoli on Sunday for talks with Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, head of Libya's internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), during which the two sides signed a bilateral cooperation agreement and agreed to reactivate the Libyan-Syrian Joint Higher Committee — a prime ministerial-level body tasked with coordinating political, economic and social ties.
The embassy had been closed since 2012, when Libya's then-Transitional National Council recognised the Syrian opposition uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and severed diplomatic relations with Damascus. The rupture deepened as both countries descended into prolonged conflict: fighters linked to Assad's government and to the Syrian opposition both participated in Libya's own civil war, drawn in partly through Russian and Turkish influence over the rival Libyan factions. Syria's new post-Assad administration — Assad was ousted in December 2024, ending 61 years of Baath Party rule — has since moved to rebuild diplomatic ties across the Arab world. A symbolic step came in August 2025, when a Syrian technical delegation raised the new post-Assad Syrian flag over the Tripoli embassy building, signalling the formal reopening was imminent.
Beyond reopening the embassy, Sunday's agreements included plans to open a Syrian consulate in Benghazi, Libya's main eastern city, raising the overall level of diplomatic representation between the two states. The two sides also discussed security cooperation and counterterrorism, consular services, the status of prisoners, detainees and refugees, and unresolved financial dues between Libyan and Syrian institutions. Al-Shaibani separately met Libya's oil and gas minister and the head of its investment authority to explore energy and investment cooperation, and both governments indicated the Joint Higher Committee could hold its first meeting before the end of this year or in early 2026. Restoring air and sea transport links was also on the agenda.
The reopening carries practical significance for the estimated 200,000 Syrians living in Libya, many of whom fled there during Syria's years of war and have had no consular services available to them. Al-Shaibani said the embassy's return would help regularise the situation of Syrian nationals in the country and that the Syrian diaspora would remain an active partner in Syria's reconstruction. Dbeibah framed the meeting as the beginning of a relationship built on "shared interests, practical cooperation and addressing outstanding issues." For both Damascus and Tripoli — each navigating complex transitions after years of conflict and political fragmentation — the restored embassy represents a concrete step toward reclaiming normal state-to-state relations in a region where such normalcy has been far from guaranteed.