COUNTRIES SEEK CONSENSUS TO REINSTATE SYRIA TO ARAB LEAGUE
▶ Bilateral ties with regional nations are being mended, but some demand resolution to conflict
Regional countries pushing for re-engagement with Syria are seeking a mechanism and consensus to readmit Damascus to the Arab League, senior diplomats and officials have told The National.
It has been a decade since the diplomatic body expelled Syria over the government’s bloody crackdown on pro-reform and democracy protesters, which ignited the civil war that still divides the country.
Senior Middle Eastern diplomats have said the expulsion was a mistake, because it removed any regional voice that could mediate to end the bloodshed, and effectively abdicated collective responsibility.
This could now change, officials said.
“That would take time and may not be in place in time for the Algeria summit in March,” an official at the Arab League told The National. “The question of Syria’s readmission is chiefly dealt with now behind closed doors.”
As some countries in the 22-member organisation maintain their wait-and-see strategy, others have said they want to see a political agreement between Damascus and opposition groups before Syria can be readmitted.
“Nine Arab foreign ministers have informed us that they feel that Syria’s absence has hurt joint Arab endeavours and that Syria must be back sooner than later,” the official said.
“The decision to suspend Syria’s membership was hasty and contributed to the complexity of the situation in Syria.”
In recent months, there have been clear signals at a bilateral level of a warming of relations between Syria and several Arab League members.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, met Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus this month. The UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus in December 2018.
Sources in Amman say that Jordan is looking at restoring full relations with Syria after recent security and border-management meetings.
“Jordanian officials have been pointing out potential economic benefits as a key motive behind active steps the kingdom took in the past three months to accommodate President Assad,” a Jordanian official told The National. “When it comes to commercial ties with Syria, there are no holds barred.”
The kingdom has relaxed restrictions on border crossings with Syria, whose economy has shrunk by about 60 per cent since the start of the conflict, according to the World Bank. Jordan also seeks close co-operation to put an end to cross-border drug smuggling.
In October, Jordan’s King Abdullah II received a phone call from Mr Al Assad.
At the 17th Manama Dialogue in the Bahraini capital this month, Ayman Safadi, Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, urged all Arab countries to act in unison to help bring an end to the suffering of the Syrian people.
Syrian Defence Minister Ali Ayyoub also visited Jordan last September, the first such meeting since the war erupted a decade ago.
But the kingdom, one of the biggest recipients of annual US aid, backtracked in October from an announced plan to resume flights between Amman and Damascus, which diplomats say would require a waiver from US sanctions on the Assad government.
The Arab-Syrian overtures are happening before the Arab Summit that will be hosted in March by Algeria, a staunch supporter of lifting the suspension of Syria’s membership in the League. “When we organise an Arab summit, it must be a unifying summit and Syria needs to be present,” Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said last week.
Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said Syria would be foremost on the agenda of the meeting. He told local media that Algeria saw eye to eye with other Arab countries supporting Syria’s return.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi met his Syrian peer Faisal Mekdad in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry also met Mr Mekdad in New York for the first time in more than a decade. Egypt has agreed to export natural gas to help ease Lebanon’s fuel crisis via a pipeline that runs through Syria.
“There was a western project to destroy Syria and unfortunately some Arab countries joined forces and intervened and violated the territorial integrity of Damascus,” former Tunisian foreign minister Ahmed Wanis told The National.
“Turkey and the Tunisian Troika were part of this axis until president Beji Caid Essebsi was elected in 2014,” he said, referring to the alliance of parties that ruled Tunisia briefly after the parliamentary elections in 2011 that followed the removal of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Iraqi officials have been lobbying for years to reinstate Syria, but these efforts have yielded no progress.
In 2011, it abstained from voting for Syria’s suspension.
“They see us as an ally to Al Assad, as if we’re working for the benefit of his regime instead of the benefit for the whole region, mainly Syria’s neighbours,” an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi told The National.
Lebanon’s government has not officially stated its position on Syria’s reintegration into the Arab League.
The Cabinet has been paralysed by disputes caused by a several attempts by politicians to block the probe into the Beirut port explosion last year, as well as a diplomatic row with Gulf countries. “Lebanon is waiting for the Arab League to put Syria’s return on its agenda to take an official position,” a source close to President Michel Aoun said.
But efforts to re-engage with Mr Al Assad still run into strong headwinds at regional and international levels.
Saudi Arabia has insisted that progress on a political process to end the conflict is necessary to restore diplomatic ties with Syria or reinstate Damascus to the Arab League.
Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani this month repeated his hopes that countries would be discouraged from taking further steps with the Assad regime.
He was speaking in Washington alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who voiced no support for normalising relations with the Assad regime.
The EU has imposed its own sanctions on the Assad regime. They include a ban on oil imports, investment restrictions, a freeze on central bank assets held in the EU and sanctions against nearly 300 Syrians, including officials and businessmen.
The UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation met the Syrian president in Damascus this month