Even while the protracted conflict over his rule in Syria rages on, President Bashar Assad was extended an invitation to the COP28 climate meetings later this year in Dubai.
After years of being excluded from regional politics, Assad was invited late on Monday to the climate talks and is already set to attend the Arab League meeting this Friday in Jeddah.
A savage assault by the Assad administration on protesters in the 2011 Arab Spring revolt that opposed his authority spiraled into a civil war, which then turned the fight into a regional one. Half of its population has been displaced, and half a million people have died in the conflict.
According to Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, Assad received his invitation in a letter from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the ruler of the Emiratis.
Images of Assad reading the letter in Damascus alongside an Emirati envoy were released by the news organization.
Similar to the UAE, relations with Assad were severed but have since been gradually repaired.
When contacted for comment, the Emirati office in charge of planning the upcoming climate conference sent a statement that described the occasion as “a milestone opportunity for the world to come together, course-correct, and drive progress toward keeping the goals and ambitions of the Paris Climate Agreement alive.”
The statement said, “COP28 is committed to an inclusive COP process that yields transformational solutions.” “Only with everyone present in the room can this happen.”
Syria is a signatory to both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement. A drought that started in Syria in 2007 has been connected to climate change by scientists, who believe it likely contributed to the violence.
That business intends to increase its output of natural gas and crude oil, two fossil fuels that emit more of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide that the UN negotiations are attempting to control.
However, Sultan Al-Jaber, the head of oil, has also assisted in overseeing the Emirates’ pledge of tens of billions of dollars for international renewable energy projects.
The Conference of the Parties, from whence the acronym COP derives, will take place from November 30 through December 12 in Expo City in Dubai.
