Syrian leader to visit Jordan on Wednesday, say Jordanian sources

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian transitional leader Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit Jordan on Wednesday and meet King Abdullah to discuss boosting ties between the neighbouring countries, two Jordanian officials said.

The visit is the new interim leader's third foreign trip along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey since he came to power after leading a decisive rebel offensive which ousted long-time Iran-backed Bashar al Assad.

Sharaa is expected to hold wide-ranging talks over border security and ways of expanding commercial ties.

Assad's relationships with most of the Arab world and his neighbours were strained throughout the nearly 14-year Syrian war.

Sharaa has pledged to stamp out rampant drug smuggling along the two countries' borders which proliferated during the rule of toppled Assad and whom Jordan blamed on pro-Iranian militias that held sway in southern Syria.

Jordan, which hosted the first international conference on Syria a week after Assad was forced to flee, wants to see a peaceful political transition in Syria, fearing a return of chaos and instability along its borders.

Officials have said they were ready to help Syria rebuild and promised to help it ease its acute power shortages by supplying it with electricity and gas.

The end of Assad's rule has upended the geopolitics of the Middle East, dealing a major blow to his ally Iran and clearing the way for other states to build new ties with a country at the crossroads of the region.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Ed Osmond)

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