A consultative meeting gathers in Jeddah on Friday the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with their counterparts from Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, to discuss, among other files, Syria’s return to the Arab League and its presence at the next Arab Summit.
An Arab diplomatic source, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity, said the decision to accept Syria’s return to the Arab League “is still ripening,” pointing to a “positive” atmosphere prevailing in the current consultations between several active Arab capitals.
The diplomat said the shuttle visits by Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Miqdad to a number of Arab countries, and the rapprochement and diplomatic movement that the Syrian arena witnessed in the aftermath of the earthquake of Feb. 6, helped soften stances.
He also noted that only a few countries still reject Syria’s return to the Arab League.
Miqdad visited Jeddah on Wednesday on his first official visit to Saudi Arabia since relations between the Riyadh and Damascus were severed at the beginning of the conflict in Syria.
The Arab foreign ministers had suspended Syria’s membership in the organization following an emergency meeting in Cairo in Nov. 2011, around eight months after the outbreak of protests in Syria.
In the past two months, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Oman and the United Arab Emirates. On April 3, the Tunisian presidency announced that Tunisian President Kais Saied had instructed Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar to initiate procedures for appointing an ambassador for his country in Damascus. The UAE reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital in 2018.
Dr. Mohammad Ezz Al-Arab, head of the Arab and Regional Studies Unit at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said the Jeddah meeting would be a turning point in the Arab decision on Syria’s return to the Arab League, expressing his belief that “the atmosphere is more prepared than ever” for the country’s presence in the next Arab summit in Riyadh.
He stressed “the importance of the Saudi role in this regard, especially after Saudi Arabia, which will host the upcoming Arab summit, received the Syrian foreign minister.”
He added that for the first time in 11 years, several circumstances support the return of Syria to its seat in the Arab League, including the great Arab sympathy for the country following the February earthquake.
Ezz Al-Arab also pointed to a shift in regional positions, and the revival of ties between active Arab and regional countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE with Türkiye and Iran, which represents a starting point for improving inter-Arab relations.
Regarding the demands that could be raised in exchange for reinstating Syria’s membership, he indicated that Syria will be required to contain the peaceful Syrian opposition, in addition to facilitating transparent elections and the safe return of refugees, and allowing the entry of humanitarian aid to all Syrian territories, especially those controlled by the regime.
