CAIRO (AFP) – The Arab League on Sunday welcomed back Syria’s government, ending a more than decade-long suspension and securing President Bashar al-Assad’s return to the Arab fold after years of isolation.
In November 2011, the body suspended Damascus over its crackdown on peaceful protests, which had begun earlier that year and which spiralled into a war that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry. While the front lines have mostly quietened, large parts of the country’s north remain outside government control, and no political solution has yet been reached to the 12-year-old conflict.
“Government delegations from the Syrian Arab Republic will resume their participation in Arab League meetings” , said a unanimous decision by the group’s foreign ministers.
The ministers in a statement emphasised their “keenness to launch a leading Arab role in efforts to resolve” the Syria crisis.
They agreed to form a ministerial committee to continue “direct dialogue with the Syrian government in order to reach a comprehensive solution”. Head of the 22-member Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said the decision “brings the Arab side into communication with the Syrian government for the first time in years”.
Syria’s return to the body is “the beginning… not the end of the issue”, he added, noting it was up to individual countries to decide whether to resume ties with Damascus. Following the announcement, Syria’s Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of “Arab cooperation”, in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.
“The next stage requires an effective and constructive Arab approach… based on dialogue, mutual respect and common Arab interests,” it added.
Several Arab countries cut ties with Syria early in the conflict, while some provided support to the Syrian opposition. Qatar on Sunday said it would not normalise relations with Assad’s government, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid bin Muhammad al-Ansari told state media Doha would not be “an obstacle” to the Arab move.
The last Arab League summit Assad attended was in 2010, while the opposition attended the pan-Arab group’s summit in Doha in 2013, to Damascus’ fury.
Aboul Gheit told a press conference Assad was welcome to attend the Arab League’s next summit on May 19 once invited by host Saudi Arabia. Regional capitals have gradually been warming to Assad as he has stubbornly held onto power and clawed back lost territory with crucial support from Iran and Russia.
