After a decade of exile from the Arab League, Syria’s government officials attended a preparatory session before the upcoming summit in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, some countries, like Qatar, have to normalize relations yet.
Syria ended over a decade of exile from the Arab League on Monday as officials participated in a preparatory session ahead of Friday’s summit in Saudi Arabia.
It is the first time Syrian officials have participated in an Arab League meeting since the body suspended Damascus in November 2011 over its violent crackdown on protests, spiraling into a conflict that killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
Earlier this month, the pan-Arab body officially welcomed back Syria’s government, securing President Bashar al-Assad’s return to the Arab fold.
Saudi King Salman has invited Assad to attend Friday’s summit in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, which would be his first since the 2010 meeting in Libya.
Regional capitals have gradually been warming to Assad as he has held on to power and clawed back lost territory with crucial support from Iran and Russia.
The United Arab Emirates re-established ties with Syria in 2018 and led the recent charge to reintegrate Damascus.
Diplomatic activity picked up after a deadly earthquake struck Syria and Turkey on February 6.
A decision in March by Saudi Arabia and Iran, a close ally of Damascus, to resume ties has also shifted the regional political landscape.
Riyadh, which cut ties with Assad’s government in 2012 and had long openly championed the Syrian leader’s ouster, confirmed last week that work would resume at the two countries’ respective diplomatic missions.
But while Syria’s front lines have mostly quietened, large parts of the north remain outside government control, and no political solution to the conflict is in sight.
Top diplomats from nine Arab countries discussed the Syria crisis in Saudi Arabia last month, and five regional foreign ministers, including Syria’s, met in Jordan on May 1.
But not every country in the region has been quick to mend ties with Assad.
Qatar said this month it would not normalize relations with Assad’s government, but also noted this would not be “an obstacle” to Arab League reintegration.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP.
