Al-Sharaa, the former leader of Islamist rebel group HTS, was announced Syria’s interim president on Wednesday.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Friday congratulated Ahmed al-Sharaa on assuming Syria’s interim presidency, two days after his appointment.
“I wish him success in achieving the aspirations of the Syrian people for more progress and prosperity,” Sisi said on social media, less than two months after Sharaa led the ouster of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa was named interim president on Wednesday for an unspecified transitional period.
The following day, he welcomed Qatar’s emir, the first head of state to visit since Assad’s fall.
Syria’s new authorities on Wednesday said Sharaa had been tasked with forming a transitional legislature.
They announced the dissolution of all armed groups involved in Assad’s overthrow, as well as the former government’s army.
Since Islamist-led rebels seized power in December, Cairo has kept the new authorities in Syria at arm’s length.
Sisi came to power in 2014 after toppling the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and has since defined his administration in its opposition and crackdown on Islamist forces.
Egypt backed Assad until the end, even as Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham closed in on Damascus.
Cairo has since engaged carefully with Syria, sending humanitarian aid and establishing diplomatic links, while repeatedly calling for an inclusive political transition in the country.
A transitional government had previously been appointed to steer the multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country until 1 March.
