Ensuring national security, increasing influence among its Arab neighbours and securing the return of the Golan Heights, have been the primary goals of the Syrian Arab Republic's foreign policy. At many points in its history, Syria has seen tension with its neighbours, such as Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. 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. Until 2018, due to the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Arab Republic's government was partially isolated from the countries in the region and the wider international community. Diplomatic relations are severed with several countries, including Turkey, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the UK, Belgium, Spain, Mexico, Qatar, Georgia, and Ukraine. In 2011 and 2012, Syria was suspended from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Union for the Mediterranean. Syria is also a full member of the Arab League. Syria is a candidate state of the new Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
Adel al-Jubeir is a Saudi diplomat serving as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs since 2018. He also serves as a Member of the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia and has been the Climate Affairs Envoy since 2022. Notably, he is the second non-royal to hold the office of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, succeeding Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Suwaiyel. Previously, al-Jubeir was the Saudi Ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2015 and a foreign policy advisor to King Abdullah.
Edward William Gnehm Jr., also known as Skip Gnehm, is an American diplomat who most recently served as the U.S. ambassador to Jordan. He is now a faculty member at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.
Walid Mohi Edine al Muallem was a Syrian diplomat and Ba'ath Party member who served as foreign minister from 2006 to 2020 and as deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2020.
The dynamic between the League of Arab States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been ambivalent, owing to the latter's varying bilateral conduct with each country of the former. Iran is located on the easternmost frontier of the Arab League, which consists of 22 Arab countries and spans the bulk of the Middle East and North Africa, of which Iran is also a part. The Arab League's population is dominated by ethnic Arabs, whereas Iran's population is dominated by ethnic Persians; and while both sides have Islam as a common religion, their sects differ, with Sunnis constituting the majority in the Arab League and Shias constituting the majority in Iran. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the country's Shia theocracy has attempted to assert itself as the legitimate religious and political leadership of all Muslims, contesting a status that has generally been understood as belonging to Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. This animosity, manifested in the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, has greatly exacerbated the Shia–Sunni divide throughout the Muslim world.
Simon Paul Collis, is a former British ambassador to several Middle Eastern countries before retiring from diplomatic service in February 2020.
Yaşar Yakış was a Turkish politician. He was a Foreign Minister, and an ambassador to the UN Office in Vienna, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. From 2002 to 2011 he represented Düzce as an MP in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. He was a member of the Justice and Development Party, the leading political party in Turkey at the moment and he was the chair of the European Union Harmonization Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. He received the French Légion of Honour.
Mario Scialoja was an Italian diplomat. His last post was as Italian ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996. Upon retiring, he decided to spend his last years serving the Muslim community of Italy.
Samir al Shihabi served as President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1991 to 1992.
Bashar Jaafari, also Ja'afari, is the former Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City and current Syrian ambassador to Russia.
Raymond Arthur Hare was a United States diplomat who was Director General of the United States Foreign Service from 1954 to 1956 and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs from 1965 to 1966.
Fouad Abdulhameed Ahmad Alkhateeb, was a Saudi Arabian ambassador, humanitarian, author, and businessman. In his capacity as a diplomat, he represented his homeland in Pakistan, Iraq, the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Republic of Turkey, the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Nepal, and finally as Saudi ambassador to Malaysia.
Salman bin Sultan Al Saud is the former assistant secretary general of the Saudi Arabian National Security Council for intelligence and security affairs as well as the former deputy defense minister. He is a member of House of Saud and has also a company based in the British Virgin Islands which deals with the management of a property in the Belgravia district, London. He has been the governor of Madinah province since 12 December 2023.
Saudi Arabia–Syria relations refer to bilateral and economic relations between Saudi Arabia and the Syrian Arab Republic. Diplomatic ties between these two countries of the Middle East have long been strained by the major events in the region. Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Damascus, and Syria has an embassy in Riyadh. Both countries are members of the Arab League and share close cultural ties.
Jonathan Philp is an Australian diplomat and career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran was a mob action on 2 January 2016 by protesters demonstrating against the execution of prominent Saudi Arabian Shi'a cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Mobs stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the Saudi consulate in Mashhad and ransacked them. The embassy building was set on fire with Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs. During the attacks, the police arrived and dispersed protesters from the embassy premises and extinguished the fire.
Sibi George is an Indian civil servant of the Indian Foreign Service cadre who is the current Ambassador of India to Japan. He has previously served as Ambassador of India to Kuwait, Switzerland, the Holy See as well as the Principality of Liechtenstein. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1993.
Asad Al Faqih was a Lebanese diplomat who worked for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was one of the foreign advisors of King Abdulaziz and was the first ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States which he held between 1948 and 1955.
