RIYADH: Syria did away with over a decade of exclusion from the Arab League as officials on Monday joined in a preparatory session ahead of Friday’s summit in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said: “I… take this opportunity to welcome the Syrian Arab Republic to the League of Arab States.”
Jadaan said he was “looking forward to working with everybody to achieve what we aspire to “as a camera panned to the Syrian delegation.”
It is initial time Syrian officials participated in an Arab League meeting since a body suspended Damascus in 2011 over its violent crackdown on protests, spiralling into a conflict that killed more than 500,000 citizens and displaced millions.
Earlier this month, the pan-Arab officially welcomed back Syria’s government, securing the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad’s return to the Arab fold.
Saudi King Salman invited President Assad to attend Friday’s summit in Jeddah, his first since the 2010 meeting in Libya.
Regional capitals have gradually been warming to President Assad as he has held onto power or clawed back lost territory with crucial support from Russia and Iran.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) re-established ties with Syria in 2018, leading the current charge to reintegrate Damascus.
Diplomatic activity occurred after the deadly earthquake struck Syria and Turkey on February 6.
A decision in March by Iran and Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Damascus, to resume relations has shifted the regional political landscape.
Riyadh, which cut relations with Assad’s government in 2012 and had openly championed the Syrian leader’s ouster, confirmed the previous week that work should resume at the two countries’ respective diplomatic missions.
But while Syria’s frontlines quietened, the large parts of the north remain outside government control, and no political solution to the tussle is in sight.
Top diplomats from 9 Arab countries discussed the Syria crisis in Saudi Arabia the previous month, and 5 regional foreign ministers, including Syria’s, met in Jordan on the first of May.
But not each country in the region has been quick to mend relations with President Assad.
Qatar said it wouldn’t normalise ties with Assad’s government but noted this would not be “an obstacle” to Arab League reintegration.
