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Sudan, Palestine at the Top of Jeddah Summit Files

Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League
Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League
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Sudan, Palestine at the Top of Jeddah Summit Files

Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League
Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League

With the ongoing preparations for the Arab League summit in Jeddah on Friday, Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, spoke with great optimism about what he described as a “summit of renewal and change.”

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Zaki noted that the Arab foreign ministers would convene on Wednesday to put the final touches on the agenda, saying: “Everything will be ready before the summit for approval, and we will move forward with the Arab action, under the presidency of Saudi Arabia, as of May 19.”

Saudi efforts

The assistant secretary-general of the Arab League asserted that the Saudi presidency of the Arab Summit would provide a great impetus for the Arabs.

“Saudi Arabia is witnessing good and promising diplomatic and political movement, and its presidency of the Arab summit will be active and keen on Arab interests,” he stated.

The Jeddah Summit files

The Sudanese file will top the agenda of the Jeddah summit, according to Zaki, who expressed hope that efforts to stop the armed clash would be crowned with success.

“We have all followed the Saudi-American effort that culminated in reaching a truce, but we hope for more arduous work to establish a permanent cease-fire,” he said, pointing to the creation of an Arab contact group, which includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Arab League secretary-general.

“We expect the committee to meet at the level of foreign ministers on the sidelines of the summit, to discuss the means to move forward to achieve this goal,” he added.

In addition to Sudan, Zaki said that the Palestinian file would also be among the Arab officials’ priorities.

He emphasized other important topics, including the relations that have begun to take a new shape between the Arab states on the one hand, and some regional countries, including Iran and Türkiye, on the other.

Syria’s return to the Arab League

Zaki called for considering the return of Syria to the Arab League as the beginning of a new phase in dealing with the situation in the country.

He said: “Over the course of 12 years, the Arab League dealt with the Syrian crisis based on the fact that the government in Damascus suspended its participation in all the activities of the League. Now this stage is over.”

According to the assistant secretary-general, all countries had the impression that the Arab League was completely absent from any endeavors to help Syria rise from its crisis, and to find a political solution that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people.

“The Arab side discovered that the international community, perhaps due to successive events, has begun to give less priority to the Syrian file. Of course, many things have happened, including the Ukraine war and others. This has caused the repercussions of the Syrian crisis to largely affect neighboring countries, in terms of drug trade, terrorism and refugees. Those are very pressing issues in the states neighboring Syria and other Arab countries,” the ambassador remarked.

Zaki expressed hope that the newly-established mechanism and the Arab committee that was recently formed to follow up on the Syrian file would open a new chapter in the Arab dealing with Syria and help the Syrian people overcome their crises.

Relations with Iran

According to the senior diplomat, the Arab League sees the Saudi-Iranian agreement as positive and may contribute to stability in the region if Iran’s intentions are sincere.

He continued: “If intentions are sincere and commitments are implemented, we hope that this region will witness some improvement in the relationship between the Arab countries on the one hand, and Iran on the other.”

Zaki noted that relations between the Arab world and Iran in recent history were “full of negative interference.”

“But we want to open a new page, and this agreement is like a new chapter. If intentions are sincere, we can achieve a lot for the sake of the peoples of the region,” he stated.

The role of the Arab League and its reform

Zaki tried to differentiate between repeated criticisms of the Arab League performance and calls for reform, saying that the two matters were separate.

“With regard to the presence of the Arab League in Arab files and crises, we have tried and are trying as much as possible for the flag of the Arab League to be present in all forums, and for it to have an opinion and contribution to any Arab crisis or problem,” he underlined.

The senior diplomat explained: “But how can you deal with a crisis that has been thrown at the door of the Security Council, and then say that the League has not assumed its role! If the issue was brought up to the Security Council, what can the Arab League do about it? ... This is unfair.”

The assistant secretary-general said that calls for reform were “intended, to a large extent, to obstruct” the work of the Arab League.

“But tell me about the countries that do not pay their dues and contributions to the League (we do not want to name them). Does this matter fall in the interest of the Arab League or not? Does this enable it to perform the roles entrusted to it? The word reform is beautiful, sounds nice and it is used in many forums, but tell me what is the problem that we want to deal with and I will tell you whether it deserves reform or not,” Zaki stated.

He cited an example, saying that before 2005, the Arab League was constantly criticized for not voting on decisions and contenting itself with consensus.

“The Arab League adopted the voting system since 2005, that is, 18 years ago, but this system was not used once,” he remarked.

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.