Syria to attend Arab League Summit-2023 amid various Challenges and Opportunities

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Image Credit: Google

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad confirms his participation in upcoming Arab League Summit. He was invited by Saudi King after the foreign ministers of League decided to readmit Syria as member after more than a decade of separation.

Foreign Minister of Syria, Faisal Mekdad said “The President of Syria will come to attend this summit,” reported by Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV.

The Arab League Summit is going to be held on coming Friday. Assad will attend it after 12 years of isolation after the civil war in Syria erupted. Its readmission will be confirmed in the summit of 22 member countries.

The membership of Syria was suspended and frozen after Bashar Al-Assad’s crackdown against the mass protest to topple his regime.

Challenges and Desired outcomes for Arab League:

• Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan told the media on Wednesday that the region is at crossroads, facing numerous challenges.

• The minister called for cooperation among Arab countries, in order to strengthen their security, ensure stability and provision of mechanisms for economic prosperity.

• Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad met his several counterparts in Saudi Arabia to seek financial assistance in the shape of investments in worn-torn country. Syria is crippled by the conflict and Western sanctions.

• Syria has moved forward to refresh its ties with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. So, after a side line meeting, Mekdad told the reporters that Arab Governments will help the country to rebuild its economy and the return of refugees.

• Arab World has readmitted Syria to solve its dispute with Turkiye who is allegedly backing the opposition is northwest of the country.

• The move to readmit Syria into the League after more than a decade is taken suspiciously by some countries particularly Qatar.

• Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is Qatar’s top diplomat, told the reporters that his country is against the readmission of Syria, but it will support the “Arab consensus”. He further acknowledged the right of each Arab country to normalize its ties with Damascus individually.

• The reason behind Qatar’s apprehensions that it wants Syria to go through a comprehensive solution to its conflict.

• Another challenge for the Summit arises from Sudan’s Civil War of 2023. The war started 15 months ago. The summit is expected to discuss the ways-outs for Sudan Conflict. The diplomats of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Algeria to called cease-fire in Sudan.

• They also called to end the escalation of violence by Israel against Palestine.

• The major challenge before the League would be to take stance on Ukraine’s conflict and pacify between the America and East, as the Arab countries are swiftly shifting their preferences toward Chinese and Russian bloc.

(Courtesy: Al-Jazeera)