Syria on way back to Arab fold as isolation crumbles

They look like unlikely allies, but on Wednesday the moustachioed, secular Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is warmly welcoming the bearded, turban-wearing Islamist cleric-cum-President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, to Damascus.

It is the first such visit by an Iranian leader since 2010, before the Arab Spring uprisings.

Since then, Tehran has proved the staunchest of allies, helping - along with Moscow - to save the Assad regime during a particularly bloody civil war.

The trip comes amid dramatic shifts in the region. These have also seen the Syrian president and his entourage - long shunned as pariahs in the Arab world - recently being embraced, quite literally on occasion, by their neighbours.