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The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Ahmed al-Sharaa, has invited former Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa to attend an upcoming National Dialogue Conference due to be held in Damascus.

Farouk al-Sharaa, a hugely prominent Syrian politician for decades, had been sidelined from Syria's political scene during the ousted President Bashar al-Assad's rule after advocating a political solution soon after the Syrian uprising began.

Marwan al-Sharaa, Farouk's cousin, told AFP that in the days following Ahmed al-Sharaa's arrival in Damascus, he had visited Farouk at his residence in a suburb of Damascus and invited him to attend the planned National Dialogue Conference, which Farouk accepted.

The quick and dramatic collapse of Assad's Baathist regime has shaken the Middle East, but the HTS-led interim authorities have swiftly announced a government to oversee a transitional phase in Syria until March next year, reaching out to both minority leaders and former regime figures and stressing that they plan to be inclusive and their priority is to rebuild Syria.

"The last public appearance my cousin made was at the National Dialogue Conference in 2011, and his first public appearance since then will be at the upcoming National Dialogue Conference," Marwan commented.

Farouk, 86, was a key player in shaping Syria's foreign policy for over two decades.

He initially served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1984, during Hafez al-Assad's rule, then remained in this position when Bashar assumed power in 2000. He was then appointed Vice President in 2006.

Farouk went on to chair a National Dialogue Conference in a Damascus hotel in 2011, a few months after the outbreak of anti-government protests.

During that conference, he called for a political settlement to the escalating conflict, after which he vanished from the political arena and public eye, until recent developments.

Marwan explained that for much of this time, Farouk has been under house arrest.

"His driver and personal assistant were jailed on charges of facilitating his attempted defection from the regime. He hasn't been allowed to leave Damascus during this period."

He also mentioned that Farouk is in good health and is currently preparing to publish a book about Bashar al-Assad's rule from 2000 until now.

A few days ago, Mohammad Adel al-Homsi, the son of Farouk's driver, Akram al-Homsi, appeared in a video explaining the circumstances surrounding the arrest of his father by Syrian security forces in 2013.

This occurred after he returned from the Daraa governorate, where Farouk hails from. He was accused of delivering a message to a group in the governorate the aim of which was facilitating Farouk's defection from the regime.

Farouk was the only official whose disagreements with the Assad regime over how to handle the Syrian protests became public.

He was removed from the Regional Command (the top decision-making body of the former ruling Ba'ath Party) in July 2013.

His name had previously been touted as a possible successor to Bashar al-Assad in the event a transitional period to resolve the Syrian crisis had been agreed.

His cousin also pointed out the distant family ties between Ahmed and Farouk al-Sharaa, explaining, "we are basically one family - Ahmed Al-Sharaa's grandfather's brother is married to Farouk's aunt."

This is an  from our Arabic edition.