The Arab League readmitted Syria on Sunday (7 May) after more than a decade of suspension, consolidating a regional push to normalise ties with President Bashar al-Assad in a move criticised by Washington.
The decision said Syria could resume its participation in Arab League meetings immediately, while calling for a resolution of the crisis resulting from Syria’s civil war, including the flight of refugees to neighbouring countries and drug smuggling across the region.
While Arab states including the United Arab Emirates have pressed to end Assad’s isolation, some have been opposed to full normalisation without a political solution to the Syrian conflict, seeking conditions for Syria’s return.
Qatar, which had previously opposed Syria’s return to the League, said its position on normalisation had not changed and it hoped regional consensus on Syria could be “a motive for the Syrian regime to address the roots of the crisis”, a foreign ministry spokesperson told state news agency QNA.
“The reinstatement of Syria does not mean normalisation of relations between Arab countries and Syria,” Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters in Cairo. “This is a sovereign decision for each country to make.”
Syria called on Arab states to show “mutual respect”.
A US State Department spokesperson said Washington shared the goals of Arab partners in Syria, including building security and stability, but remained “sceptical of Assad’s willingness to take the steps necessary to resolve Syria’s crisis”.
“We do not believe Syria merits readmission into the Arab League at this time,” the spokesperson said, adding that US sanctions would remain in full effect.
But Russia, an Assad ally, hailed Syria’s readmission.
“Moscow welcomes this long-awaited step, the logical result of the process, which has gained momentum, of returning Syria to the ‘Arab family,’” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.
Captagon trafficking
Sunday’s decision said Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and the Arab League’s Secretary General would form a ministerial group to liaise with the Syrian government and seek solutions to the crisis through reciprocal steps.
Practical measures included continuing efforts to facilitate the delivery of aid in Syria, according to a copy of the decision seen by Reuters.
Syria’s readmission follows a Jordanian initiative laying out a roadmap for ending Syria’s conflict that includes addressing the issues of refugees, missing detainees, drug smuggling and Iranian militias in Syria.
Jordan is both a destination and a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf countries for captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine produced in Syria, and has hinted it could take unilateral action to curb the multi-billion dollar trade.
A Jordanian official said Syria would need to show it was serious about reaching a political solution, since this would be a pre-condition to lobbying for any lifting of Western sanctions, a crucial step for funding reconstruction in Syria.
Syria’s membership of the Arab League was suspended in 2011 after the crackdown on street protests against Assad that led to the civil war. Several Gulf states including Saudi Arabia began backing rebel groups fighting to oust Assad from power.
Assad later regained control over much of Syria with the help of his main allies Iran and Russia, but the war cost hundreds of thousands of lives and led millions to flee the country. Syria remains splintered with its economy in ruins.
Recently, Arab states have been trying to reach consensus on whether to invite Assad to an Arab League summit on 19 May in Riyadh to discuss the pace and conditions for normalising ties.
Responding to a question over whether Assad could participate, Aboul Gheit told reporters: “If he wishes, because Syria, starting from this evening, is a full member of the Arab League.”
Saudi Arabia had long resisted restoring relations with Assad but said after its recent rapprochement with Iran – Syria’s key regional ally – that a new approach was needed with Damascus.
Timeline of Syria’s Arab league relation
2011: International pariah
In November 2011, the 22-member Arab League suspends Syria, a founding member of the body, over the government’s bloody crackdown on anti-government protests.
Syria was hit with sanctions, including a ban on senior officials travelling to other Arab countries.
The US, most EU members and several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, broke off ties with Damascus, betting on the regime’s demise.
Washington and the EU had already imposed several rounds of sanctions, including a weapons embargo.
But Syria maintained a key ally in Russia, which vetoes numerous Security Council resolutions denouncing Assad’s regime, and Damascus also enjoys the support of Iran.
2018: Gulf outreach
By 2018, with government forces and their allies back in control of much of the country after Russia intervenes to shore up Assad’s regime, several Arab states began making moves to normalise ties with Damascus.
In December 2018, the United Arab Emirates, a major Saudi ally, reopened its embassy in Damascus, citing the need for the Arab world to counter the “regional expansionism” of Assad ally Iran, at the time an arch-foe of Riyadh.
In October 2021, Jordan’s King Abdullah II held his first call with Assad since the start of the war.
In March 2022, Assad visited the UAE on his first official trip to an Arab country since the war began.
2023: Quake shift
A devastating 6 February 2023 quake in southern Turkey and northern Syria, which left around 6,000 Syrians dead, accelerated moves by Arab states to end Syria’s isolation.
Saudi Arabia, which had backed Syria’s rebels in the early stages of the war, sent help to both government- and rebel-held areas.
Assad also received his first call from his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who assumed office in 2014 and who sends his foreign minister to Damascus later in the month.
Assad thanked his “Arab brothers” for their help.
In March, Saudi Arabia announced that it has started talks with Damascus about resuming consular services.
Tunisian President Kais Saied announced plans to restore diplomatic relations with Syria.
The rapprochement with the Arab world came amid shifting ties with Turkey, which armed Syrian rebels and welcomed millions of refugees.
Iran-Saudi reset
A surprise Chinese-brokered rapprochement between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia announced in March added momentum to Assad’s rehabilitation.
Events moved rapidly, with Syria’s foreign minister visiting Saudi Arabia for talks on 12 April, the same day as an Iranian delegation.
Two days later, representatives of nine Arab states — the six Gulf countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan — meet in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss Syria’s potential return to the Arab League.
On 1 May, talks in Amman on ending Damascus’s diplomatic isolation brought together foreign ministers from Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt.
The pan-Arab body’s decision Sunday to re-admit Syria comes ahead of an Arab League summit to be held in Jeddah on 19 May.
*first published in: Euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
