JEDDAH: Ministers and top officials from nine Arab nations met in Jeddah on Friday to discuss ending Syria’s long suspension from the Arab League.
The gathering follows a visit from Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad to Jeddah earlier in the week, marking the first such visit since the beginning of the country’s civil war in 2011.
Backed by Iran and Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been shunned by much of the Middle East and is considered a Western pariah over the war, which has killed over half a million people and displaced about half of Syria’s pre-war population.
The Red Sea city meeting includes ministers and top officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, which are Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), along with Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan.
The agenda also covers Syria’s suspension from the Arab League, which was imposed when Assad’s government launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011.
However, analysts believe that Saudi Arabia is trying to calm the region to allow the Gulf leader to focus on ambitious domestic projects aimed at diversifying its energy-dependent economy.
Any recommendation to reinstate Syria in the Arab League, whose next meeting is scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia in May, is expected to draw protests from Western countries.
Syria’s potential rehabilitation sends “a message to the opposition that Bashar al-Assad will triumph in the end and that their foreign supporters will betray them,” according to Aron Lund of the Century International think tank.
Syria’s return to Arab League
Residents of rebel-held Idlib in northern Syria expressed feeling “betrayed” by the moves to rehabilitate Assad’s government. Rama Sifu, who lives in Idlib, said “How come after twelve years of struggle and revolution, today they come and tell him: here is your seat at the Arab League? This is absolutely unacceptable; we really felt let down.”
Although the Arab League makes decisions by consensus, unanimous agreement is unlikely, said a diplomat based in Riyadh who declined to be identified.
“The meeting aims to overcome the Arab countries’ differences over Syria as much as possible,” the diplomat noted, singling out Qatar.
“Saudi Arabia is trying at least to ensure that Qatar does not object to Syria’s return to the Arab League forum if the issue is put to any vote,” the diplomat said.
