Oman FM arrives in Damascus amid warming Gulf-Syria regime relations

Oman's Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi arrived in Syrian on Monday leading an Omani delegation set to meet with top regime officials in a further sign of rapprochement between Damascus and Gulf states.

Abusaidi met with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Mekdad, according to reports by Syrian state news agency SANA.

Oman was one of the few Arab states not to cut ties with Syria after regime forces began gunning down protesters, escalating into an armed uprising.

Al-Mekdad said relations between the two countries remained "strong" during the ten-year war.

"We used to meet in Muscat and now we receive our brothers from [Oman] in Damascus, with open hearts and open minds," Al-Mekdad told reporters, according to SANA.

"Relations between our two brotherly states have been continuous and have not been interrupted [since the crisis in Syrian began]."

SANA published images showing both foreign ministers seated under a large portrait of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Abusaidi's trip to the Syrian capital comes as Gulf Arab states make moves to normalise relations with Damascus.

Some Arab states have also been working behind closed doors to readmit Syria to the Arab League, according to reports.

The 22-member organisation has so far pursued a wait-and-see approach, with its Secretary-General Ahmad Aboul Gheit announcing on Saturday that the "necessary procedures" for Syria's return to the pan-Arab organisation were not yet fulfilled.

Since the outbreak of mass protests across Syria in March 2011, followed by brutal regime crackdowns, more than 500,000 Syrians have been killed, nearly 6.5 million have been internally displaced, and more than six million Syrian refugees are dispersed throughout the world.

The unemployment rate in Syria stands at around 50 percent and approximately 80 percent of Syrians currently live in poverty.