Syria to be readmitted soon to Arab League, Jordan minister says

Syria should soon be able to return to the Arab League but many challenges lie ahead in resolving the country’s more than decade-old conflict, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Friday.

The organization suspended Syria’s membership in 2011 over President Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on an uprising that has evolved into a civil war.

Safadi said Syria had enough votes among the group’s 22 members to regain its seat.

“The return to the league will happen. Symbolically it will be important but … that is only a very humble beginning of what will be a very long and difficult and challenging process, given the complexity of the crisis after 12 years of conflict,” he told CNN.

Discussions on normalizing ties with Syria

A spokesperson for the Arab League said on Thursday that Arab ministers will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss Syria amid the regional push to normalize ties with Assad.

SECRETARY-GENERAL of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit (L); Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud; and Secretary of the Gulf Cooperation Council Nayef Al-Hajraf attend a news conference at the Arab Gulf Summit in Riyadh, late last year. (credit: Ahmed Yosri/Reuters)

Several Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Egypt have recently reengaged with Syria through high-level visits and meetings, although some including Qatar remain opposed to full normalization without a political solution to Syria’s conflict

At a meeting in Amman on Monday, Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad met for the first time with Arab ministers as part of a Jordanian initiative to get Damascus to negotiate a peace plan.

It lays a road map for ending the conflict would include addressing the issues of refugees, missing detainees, drug smuggling and Iranian militias in Syria.

Safadi said Syria’s readiness to make real progress in resolving the conflict would help it win the crucial Arab support to lobby for an eventual end of Western sanctions that are a major impediment to launching a major reconstruction effort.

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