Historic diplomatic move. Syria was readmitted to the Arab League
Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria
In a surprise diplomatic move yesterday, Syria was readmitted as a full member of the Arab League. The Arab League readmitted Syria after an 11-year absence, the organization announced on Sunday, following an extraordinary meeting at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The crackdown takes immediate effect after Syria was suspended amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests. The Arab League is an organization of countries in the Middle East and Africa and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Its aim is to promote closer political, economic, cultural, and social relations between members. Member states agreed during Sunday’s meeting to “resume the participation of Syrian Arab Republic government delegations in meetings of the League of Arab States Council,” according to a statement from the League in Arabic, quoted by CNN. The Arab League also stressed the need to take “practical and effective measures” to resolve the Syrian crisis, the statement added. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may attend the upcoming Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia if he is invited and wants to attend, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters on Sunday. “Syria, as of tonight, is a full member of the Arab League, and as of tomorrow, it has the right to participate in any meeting.
When the host nation, in this case Saudi Arabia, sends the invitation, Assad can attend if he wants to,” Gheit said. Officials and analysts said Syria’s readmission to the Arab League, albeit symbolic, comes with the possibility that it could allow Assad’s international rehabilitation and potentially allow the lifting of crippling sanctions against his regime. Commenting on CNN earlier this month, HA Hellyer, a Middle East scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Cambridge University, said Syria’s return to the Arab League “opens the way for member states that might have been reluctant to cooperate more directly with the Assad regime”. “It also makes it easier for non-member states like Turkey and others to claim that a new modus vivendi is in place,” he added. Syria has been subject to harsh Western sanctions for years, the most significant being the 2019 US Caesar Act, which imposed sweeping sanctions that restrict individuals, companies, or governments from economic activities that support Assad’s war effort. US sanctions have isolated the entire economy. The UN says the levels of poverty and food insecurity facing Syrians today are unprecedented. The World Food Program estimates that as of 2022, more than 12 million Syrians—more than half the country’s population—face food insecurity.
By Sara Colin
