India, July 29 -- India has made a formal outreach to Syria's provisional government led by former Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, with a middle-ranking diplomat visiting Damascus for meetings with Syrian ministers.

This was the first official visit to Damascus from the Indian side since al-Sharaa, whose group was once affiliated to al-Qaeda, assumed power after ousting the regime of Bashar al-Assad following a lightning offensive last December.

There was no official word from the Indian side on the visit by Suresh Kumar, director of the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) division of the external affairs ministry. Kumar's meetings with Syria's foreign and education ministers in Damascus on Monday were reported by Stat...