A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows President Bashar al-Assad (left) being welcomed by Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said in Muscat on Feb 20, 2023. (SANA / AFP)

BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad travelled to Oman on Monday, his office said, his first foreign trip since the deadly earthquake and a sign of easing isolation after nearly 12 years of civil war.

Arab states have poured aid into Syria since the Feb 6 quake killed more than 5,900 people there, according to a tally of UN and Syrian government figures.

Donors have included Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates which both supported rebels seeking to overthrow Assad in the early years of the Syrian conflict.

Assad met with Oman's ruling Sultan Haitham bin Tariq who said he looked forward to Syria's ties with all Arab countries returning to normal, according to a statement from the Syrian presidency

Assad met with Oman's ruling Sultan Haitham bin Tariq who said he looked forward to Syria's ties with all Arab countries returning to normal, according to a statement from the Syrian presidency.

Oman withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2012 as other Gulf states downgraded or shut missions there in response to the Damascus government's crackdown on anti-government protests at the start of the conflict.

But Muscat kept up contacts with Syria, despite pressure from the United States, and reinstated its ambassador in 2020, the first Gulf state to do so.

ALSO READ: Assad urges end to presence of 'illegal foreign powers' in Syria

Since then there have been signs of a shift in the Middle East towards reviving ties with Assad, a change accelerated by the earthquake.

Jordan's foreign minister made his first trip to Damascus last week and on Feb 7 Assad and Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi spoke by phone for the first time.

The UAE's foreign minister met Assad in Damascus a week ago, his third such visit since the beginning of the war.

Assad's previous visit to the UAE in March last year was his first trip to an Arab state since the outbreak of civil war in 2011.

READ MORE: Bahrain to resume work at embassy in Syria after UAE move

He rarely left Syria during the war, travelling only to close allies Russia and Iran whose military support helped Assad turn the tide of the conflict.