2023-05-19 10:11:53
Back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Friday to participate in The annual summit of the League of Arab States In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, following a long absence 13 Years, following suspending his country’s membership for suppressing the popular protests that took to the streets once morest the regime in the year 2011.
After his arrival in Jeddah a few days ago, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said, “We express our happiness with our presence in Saudi Arabia. This summit is very important,” adding, “We wish this summit every success.” The Sirte summit was in Libya in March 2010 The last summit attended by Assad.
The main streets of Jeddah were decorated with the flags of the participating countries, including the Syrian flag, and luminous banners in the streets welcomed the guests of the “Jeddah Summit”, which Al-Riyadh newspaper described on its front page as the “summit of summits”.
The Saudi authorities also strengthened security measures on the roads leading to the luxurious “Ritz-Carlton” hotel, which is hosting the summit, with the arrival of Arab leaders on Thursday.
By Friday morning, the leaders of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain, Tunisia, Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia and the Sultanate of Oman had arrived.
Among the most prominent absentees will be the influential Emirati President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who announced that he will delegate his deputy, Mansour bin Zayed, according to the official Emirates News Agency, WAM, on Friday, as well as Algerian President Abdel Majeed Tebboune.
It is noteworthy that efforts to return Assad to the Arab incubator are not welcomed by all regional and international parties. Qatar announced that it would not normalize its relations with the Damascus government, but indicated that it would not be an “obstacle” to the step taken by the Arab League. And the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, announced in a statement Thursday that he will lead his country’s delegation to the Arab summit.
In addition, Washington, for its part, reiterated on Wednesday that it “does not believe that Syria deserves to be returned to the Arab League.” “We will not work to normalize relations with the Assad regime and we certainly don’t support others to do either,” foreign ministry spokesman Vedant Patil said.
As a reminder, Arab countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, supported the Syrian opposition in the first years of the conflict and demanded Assad’s departure from power, before they returned to normalizing their relations with Damascus recently.
Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic position… Zelensky is a guest of honor
In addition to restoring relations with Damascus, two major crises are expected to top the agenda of the summit The conflict that has been going on for a month in Sudan Between the army led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Lieutenant General Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo on the one hand, and the conflict that has been going on in Yemen for more than eight years on the other hand.
The Arab summit is also being held amid relentless efforts by Saudi Arabia to strengthen its diplomatic position in the Middle East and beyond, and following Normalization of its relations with Iran With Chinese mediation last March, following a rupture.
Since then, Riyadh has restored its diplomatic relations with Syria and intensified its diplomatic efforts to push for peace in Yemen, as it leads a military coalition once morest the Iran-backed Houthis, in support of the Yemeni government.
This, and Riyadh also played a central role in the evacuations of civilians from Sudan when the fighting broke out last month, and is currently hosting representatives of both sides of the conflict in order to reach a truce.
In addition to the major challenges facing the Middle East region, the Arab summit will have to take into account international issues such as the war in Ukraine, according to what the Assistant Secretary-General for International Political Affairs at the Arab League, Khaled Manzalawi, wrote on Wednesday in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, where he said, “It is necessary It is certain that there will be an urgent need for consensus and solidarity collectively… (at) this extremely dangerous stage in world history, which is witnessing a redrawing of the maps of international relations.
In addition, this proposition is consistent with Saudi Arabia’s current efforts to diversify its international alliances, while strengthening relations with China and enhancing coordination with Russia on oil policies, while trying to maintain close relations with the United States, the Kingdom’s security partner for decades.
Rabiha Seif Allam, an expert at the Al-Ahram Center for Political Studies in Cairo, says that the world is in “an international moment witnessing the withdrawal of major powers from the region and their preoccupation with Russia’s war,” which she considers “the kiss of life for the university to play its role as a coordinating station for regional efforts to resolve conflicts in the region.”
In the context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Saudi Arabia on Friday to attend the Arab League summit. He arrived in Jeddah on board a French government plane, which will take him later to the summit of the leaders of the Group of Seven countries in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
For his part, Torbjorn Soltvedt of the consulting firm Versk Maplecroft says that, from Riyadh’s point of view, a successful summit will include concrete commitments from Syria on issues including the refugee file and the Captagon trade.
For information, drug smuggling is one of the biggest sources of concern for Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, which has become a major market for Captagon pills, which are mainly manufactured in Syria.
However, the analyst points out that Arab League summits were “often marked by internal disagreement and indecisiveness,” adding, “Therefore, the standard for success will be low.”
FRANCE 24/AFP/Archyde.com
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