Al-Haris said the embassy and its staff were keen to exert all efforts to strengthen relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Damascus reopened on Monday with a ceremony to mark the occasion. The celebration was attended by a number of Syrian government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, and a group of dignitaries and intellectuals, the embassy said. Acting Charge d’Affaires Abdullah Al-Haris stated in a speech on Monday that “this day is an important moment in the history of relations” between the Kingdom and Syria. Al-Haris added that the embassy and its staff were keen to exert all efforts to strengthen relations between the two countries. Saudi Arabia shut its embassy in Syria and withdrew all its staff in March 2012, a year after the Syrian civil war started in 2011.