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Arab countries agreed on Sunday to allow Syria to rejoin the Arab League, taking an important step toward ending the country’s international ostracism more than a decade after it was suspended from the group for using brutal force against its own people.
When Syria’s neighbors and friends withdrew from the 22-member league in November 2011, a month after the Arab Spring uprisings began, the move was seen as a major condemnation of a government that has bombed, bombed and tortured protesters and others in the ongoing conflict. metastasized into a long civil war.
Now, the region is normalizing relations, increasingly convinced that Arab countries have little to gain from isolating Syria, as the United States has urged. Refusing to make a deal with Syria means ignoring the fact that its government has won the war, advocates of engagement argue.
That left Syria poised to return this month in Saudi Arabia at the next Arab League summit – possibly represented by President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader accused of committing war crimes against his own people over the past decade. Rehabilitating Syria could unlock billions of dollars in reconstruction projects and other investments for the tottering economy, further propping up Mr. al-Assad.
The circumstances that led to Syria’s suspension have not changed; if anything, the bloodshed has only grown during the civil war that has ravaged the country for the past 12 years, leaving Mr. al-Assad in power at home but a pariah everywhere.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died since the war broke out, and more than 14 million have fled their homes to other parts of Syria, neighboring countries or beyond, according to United Nations estimates.
“Today, Arab countries have put their own cynical realpolitik and diplomatic agenda above basic humanity,” said Laila Kiki, executive director of the Syria Campaign, a non-profit organization that supports Syrian civil society groups.
“By voting to restore the Syrian regime’s membership in the Arab League, member states cruelly betrayed tens of thousands of victims of the regime’s war crimes and gave Assad the green light to continue committing heinous crimes with impunity.”
The revolution in Mr. al-Assad’s actions, along with pressure from the United States, has made most of Syria’s Arab neighbors reluctant to engage with the government over the past decade. Some openly support the opposition fighting to oust Mr. al-Assad, and some remain reluctant to embrace him.
But the regional calculus has shifted. With the Syrian government in Damascus having retaken most of the country from opposition forces, it has been clear for years that Mr al-Assad is here to stay.
Neighboring countries including Lebanon and Jordan have been eager to work with Syria to send refugees home, while others hope to cooperate in efforts to end the trade in Captagon, an illegal and addictive drug produced and sold by Syrian government. sanctions have been bitten and the economy has cratered.
The Middle East’s leading power brokers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are also looking for new approaches to deal with Iran, which has deep influence in Syria after sending fighters and other aid to help Mr. al-Assad cling to power. Deciding that regional isolation would only drive Syria into Iran’s hands, the Gulf monarchies are now hoping to distance Mr. al-Assad from Tehran by joining them.
An early sign of where things are coming from came when the Emirates normalized relations with Damascus in 2018. But slow moves to restore diplomatic and economic ties with Mr al-Assad gathered momentum in recent months, after a major earthquake in February killed. more than 8,000 people in northern Syria, opening the door for Arab countries to reach.
Soon, planeloads of aid from Syria’s Arab brothers landed in the quake-hit region, and Egypt sent its foreign minister to meet Mr. al-Assad in Damascus. In mid-April, Tunisia has re-established diplomatic relations with Syria and Saudi Arabia has welcomed the Syrian Foreign Minister to Jeddah to discuss restoring relations.
After years of deep freeze, Saudi-Syrian relations have accelerated in recent months as Saudi Arabia, with its regional influence, has also pushed other Arab countries towards normalization. It appears to be the main player fast-tracking the rehabilitation of Syria ahead of the Arab League summit in Jeddah on May 19, although Oman and the UAE have proposed the same thing for years, diplomats said.
The Arab rush to welcome Damascus back into the fold occurred despite public objections from the United States, which imposed strong sanctions on Syria after its civil war began and has shown no desire to lift them, still hoping to isolate Syria through a brutal government . But American efforts to depose Mr. al-Assad and replace him with an inclusive democratic government have gone nowhere, leaving American officials on edge.
On Twitter on Friday, two days before the Arab League meeting, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken reiterated that the United States continues to oppose normalization with Syria. A peaceful political transition that will eventually replace Mr. al-Assad through elections is “the only solution to end the conflict,” he said.
Realizing that he could not stop the Arab allies from restoring relations, US officials have asked to try to determine the price of Mr. al-Assad in exchange, whether it is guaranteeing the safe return of Syrian refugees, cracking down on the Captagon trade or reducing Iran’s. military presence in Syria. The assistant secretary general of the Arab League, Hossam Zaki, said on Sunday that the league had formed a committee to discuss the situation.
But the new members of the group, at least, are done.
“Having Syria out of the league is not beneficial, for Syria or for the Arab people,” Bassam Abu Abdallah, a Damascus-based political analyst, said on Sunday, describing the decision as “very positive.”
American efforts to oust Mr. al-Assad from power have failed, he said, adding, “The US political elite must abandon the mentality of regime change.”
Many countries in the Arab League have not yet formally established diplomatic relations with Syria and may still offer further conditions to do so. They include Egypt, a traditional Arab heavyweight still hesitant to embrace Mr. al-Assad over its Gulf allies.
But returning Syria to the Arab League is a strong statement, setting the stage for individual members to restore relations.
Even if some members are steaming ahead on their own, “normalization is not complete until they come to this building,” Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary general of the Arab League, said in a recent interview.
Hwaida Saad contributed reports from Beirut, Lebanon, and Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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