UAE President thanked by Assad for role in improving Arab ties
Syria’s leader Bashar Al Assad has thanked President Sheikh Mohamed for his work to improve relations between Arab countries, after his country was readmitted to the Arab League.
This came after the 22-member group met in Cairo on Sunday, where it voted to allow Syria’s readmission. It followed more than a decade of isolation after civil war broke out there in 2011.
Mr Al Assad spoke with Sheikh Mohamed by phone and expressed his appreciation for the role the Emirates had played to improve Arab relations.
Syria’s official news agency Sana and UAE news agency Wam reported the conversation yesterday.
A day earlier, Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President and former minister of state for foreign affairs, said Syria’s return to the Arab League was “a positive step that reactivates the Arab role”.
“The challenges facing the region require strengthening communication and joint action to ensure the interests of the Arab countries and their peoples,” he said.
Damascus said the next stage required an effective and constructive Arab approach on a bilateral and collective level.
“Syria stresses, in the same context, the importance of dialogue and joint action to confront the challenges facing Arab countries,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said.
The Arab League decided Syria could resume its participation in meetings immediately but called for a resolution of the crisis resulting from the country’s civil war – including the flight of refugees to neighbouring countries and drug smuggling across the region.
As part of the deal, a committee will be set up to maintain direct communication with the Syrian government to reach a comprehensive solution to the conflict.
It will comprise the head of the Arab League and representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
Other requirements include continued efforts to deliver aid in Syria.
Syria’s readmission follows a Jordanian initiative that laid out a road map to end the country’s conflict. This covered the issues of refugees, missing detainees, drug smuggling and Iranian militias in Syria.
Jordan is a destination and main transit route to Gulf countries for smuggling Captagon – an amphetamine-type drug produced in Syria.
Amman has hinted it could take unilateral action to curb the trade.
A Jordanian official said Syria needed to show its seriousness in reaching a political solution to the civil war before any effort to lobby the West to lift sanctions could start – a crucial step for funding reconstruction.
Saudi Arabia, which is set to host the next Arab League meeting on May 19, has been leading efforts to bring Mr Al Assad’s government back to the fold.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri lauded the Arab League’s decision.
“Although this decision was delayed for years, it is a step in the right direction and in returning to Arab correctness, which can only be straightened by unity of class and
Damascus said the next stage required a constructive Arab approach on a bilateral and collective level
word,” the Lebanon National News Agency quoted Mr Berri as saying.
“With the return of Syria to the Arabs and the return of the Arabs to it, there is a glimmer of hope for a new resurrection of joint Arab action.”
Lebanon’s caretaker foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said his country was one of the first to ask for Syria’s return.
“Syria must resume its essential role within the Arab League,” Mr Bou Habib told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anbaa.
More than 800,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the UN in Lebanon. Mr Bou Habib said supporting them cost $6 billion a year – higher than the sum the international community contributes to alleviate his country’s economic crisis.
Qatar, one of the few Arab countries that has refused to consider restoring ties with Syria, said yesterday that while its position remained unchanged, it would not oppose the readmission of Damascus.
“Qatar always seeks to support whatever achieves Arab consensus and will not be an obstacle to that,” said Doha’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari.
“However, Qatar’s official stance on normalisation with the Syrian regime is a decision primarily linked to progress in reaching a political resolution that realises the aspirations of the brotherly Syrian people.”
Russia, a staunch supporter of the Assad government, hailed the Arab League’s decision to reinstate Syria’s membership, describing it as an action that showed Arab countries were intent on conducting their own “independent policy on the global stage”.
Arab rapprochement with Damascus hastened after the February 6 earthquake that killed almost 6,000 people in Syria, as well as more than 44,000 in Turkey.