Foreign relations of Syria
Since the Syrian Republic gained independence from the French Mandate, Syria has seen tension with its neighbours, such as Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. Ensuring national security, increasing influence among its Arab neighbours and securing the return of the Golan Heights, had been the primary goals of Ba'athist Syria's foreign policy. Syria is also a full member of the Arab League. Syria enjoyed an improvement in relations with several of the states in its region in the 21st century, prior to the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war. Due to the Syrian civil war, Ba'athist Syrian government was partially isolated from the countries in the region and the wider international community until 2022. After the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024, the new Syrian government actively engaged with the European Union and neighboring countries including Turkey and the Arab world for post-war reconstruction.
History
Ba'athist Syria
Under the Ba'athist regime, diplomatic relations were severed with several countries, including Turkey, Canada, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Mexico, Qatar, Georgia, and Ukraine. In 2011 and 2012, Syria was suspended from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Union for the Mediterranean and the Arab League.Ba'athist Syria had close ties with its traditional allies, Iran and Russia. Other countries that maintain good relations with the Assad regime include China, North Korea, Vietnam, Fiji, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia Brunei, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Greece, Cyprus, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Vatican City and Belarus. Syria was a candidate state of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Syria maintains relations with autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. Syria has not recognized Israel since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Ba'athist Syria also didn’t have diplomatic relations with South Korea, but the Assad regime had diplomatic relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
On 26 February 2023, Bashar al-Assad met with Iraqi, Jordanian, Palestinian, Libyan, Egyptian and Emirati lawmakers, as well as representatives from Oman and Lebanon after more than a decade of isolation in the region. Arab states contributed significantly to the relief effort after the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake. A week before, Al-Assad travelled to Oman for his first foreign visit since the quake. Syrian–Turkish normalization was also underway since 2022. On 7 May 2023, following these rapprochements, Syria was readmitted to the Arab League. While the earthquake facilitated these rapprochements, the main reasons for the readmission were the Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and the Captagon trafficking, two issues that needed Syrias involvement for being solved.
Post Ba'athist era
Since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, it is unclear whether the new transitional government retained all of Ba'athist Syria's diplomatic relations. However, Turkey became the first country to re-establish diplomatic relations with post-Assad Syria, doing so on 14 December 2024. In December 2024, Qatar also re-established diplomatic relations with Syria.In April 2025, Saudi Arabia increased its engagement with Syria by planning to pay off Syria's $15 million debt to the World Bank, potentially allowing Syria to receive grants for reconstruction efforts under its new government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who seized power in December 2024. The international community is cautiously observing al-Sharaa's government, particularly regarding its commitment to protecting religious minorities, though this move by Saudi Arabia signals a new level of diplomatic and economic engagement with the Syrian government after years of strained relations. In addition, other Gulf Arab states have announced plans to support Syria as well.
Diplomatic relations
List of countries which Syria maintains diplomatic relations with:Bilateral relations
Africa
Americas
Syria has diplomatic relations with most Central and South American countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.| Country | Formal Relations Began | Notes | ||||||
 Antigua and BarbudaAsia and OceaniaSyria's relations with the Arab world were strained by its support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq War, which began in 1980. With the end of the war in August 1988, Syria began a slow process of reintegration with the other Arab states. In 1989, it joined with the rest of the Arab world in readmitting Egypt to the 19th Arab League Summit at Casablanca.This decision, prompted in part by Syria's need for Arab League support of its own position in Lebanon, marked the end of the Syrian-led opposition to Egypt and the 1977–79 Sadat initiatives toward Israel, as well as the Camp David Accords. It coincided with the end of the 10-year Arab subsidy to Syria and other front-line Arab countries pledged at Baghdad in 1978. Syria re-established full diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1989. In the 1990–1991 Gulf War, Syria joined other Arab states in the US-led multinational coalition against Iraq. In 1998, Syria began a slow rapprochement with Iraq, driven primarily by economic needs. In this period, Syria continued to play an active pan-Arab role, which intensified as the Israel-Palestine peace process collapsed in September 2000 with the start of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel. Though it voted in favor of UNSCR 1441 in 2002, Syria was against coalition military action in Iraq in 2003. However, the Syrian government accepted UNSCR 1483, which lifted sanctions on Iraq and established a framework to assist the Iraqi people in determining their political future and rebuilding their economy. After start of the war in 2011, much of the Middle East condemned Syria's handling of the civil uprising, with only a few countries in the Middle East supporting Syria, most notably Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
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Abkhazia
Austria