Arab League flag
Syria should soon be able to return to the Arab League, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said during an interview with CNN on May 5.
The country’s membership in the Arab League was suspended when the war first broke out more than a decade ago. The decision was taken to support rebels trying to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Safadi revealed to CNN that Syria had enough votes among the Arab League’s 22 members to regain its seat in the organization.
“The return to the league will happen. Symbolically it will be important but … that is only a very humble beginning of what will be a very long and difficult and challenging process, given the complexity of the crisis after 12 years of conflict,” the Jordanian foreign minister said.
A senior diplomatic official told CNN that Arab League members will vote on a “reversal of the freeze on Syria’s membership” on May 7 in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. If the decision is approved, the Syrian delegation at the high-level Arab League summit on May 19 is “very likely” to be led by President al-Assad, the unnamed official added.
On May 1, the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq held a meeting with their Syrian counterpart in the Jordanian capital, Amman on May 1, and discussed Damascus suspended membership in the Arab league, the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country and the political settlement.
A White House National Security Council representative told The National on May 2 that the Biden administration was “encouraged” by the meeting in Amman. The comment represented a slight shift in the United States’ strict stance on Syria, which rejects any rapprochement with the country.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 3 that Washington has renewed direct talks with Syria over a number of issues, including the fate of former marin Austin Tice who went missing in the country in the first year of the war.
In addition, Syria is engaged in normalization talks with Turkey with help from Russia and Iran. The foreign ministers of the four countries may hold a meeting in the Russian capital, Moscow, on May 10. The meeting could set the ground for a summit between President al-Assad and his Turkish counterpart, Recept Tayyip Erdogan, de-facto ending the rivalry between the two neighboring countries that began with the war more than 12 years ago.
All in all, it appears that Syria’s regional isolation is about to come to an end. This could help improve the humanitarian situation in the country and push forward the political settlement.
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