Arab government representatives in Cairo voted on Sunday to return Syria, suspended for 12 years, to the Arab League
Published Date – Sunday, 7 May 23 at 09:00pm
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaks during an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, May 7, 2023. (AFP photo)
Cairo: On Sunday, Arab government representatives in Cairo voted to return Syria, suspended for 12 years, to the Arab League.
The vote in the Egyptian capital comes days after top regional diplomats met in Jordan to discuss a road map for returning Syria to the Arab state as the conflict continues to de-escalate and ahead of Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the upcoming Arab League summit on May 19. soon.
The decision to return Syria also included a commitment to ongoing dialogue with Arab governments to gradually reach a political solution to the conflict, under UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
In its decision, the Arab League also established a communications committee composed of Saudi Arabia and Syria’s neighbors Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq to follow up on developments.
There is still no Arab consensus on normalizing relations with Damascus. Some governments did not attend the meeting.
One of the most notable absences was Qatar, which continues to support opposition groups against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and continues to resist normalization with Damascus.
Syria’s membership in the Arab League was suspended 12 years ago in the early stages of an uprising that turned into a conflict that has killed nearly half a million people since March 2011 and displaced half of the country’s prewar population of 23 million .
Egyptian Foreign Minister Samer Shoukry said in a public statement ahead of the meeting that only an Arab-led “political solution free from foreign instigation” can end the ongoing conflict, restore unity and stability in Syria, and allow refugees and The displaced returned.
“The different phases of the Syrian crisis have proven that it has no military solution and that there are no winners and no losers in this conflict,” he added. few weeks.
