Dubai: Saudi Arabia and Syria agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies after more than a decade, sources said Thursday.

Contacts between Riyadh and Damascus had rekindled following a landmark agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume their ties and reopen their embassies.

The re-establishment of ties between Riyadh and Damascus marks the most significant development in efforts by Arab countries to normalise relations with Bashar Al Assad's regime, which was shunned by many Western and Arab states after Syria's civil war began in 2011