2023-05-18 19:31:55
After around a decade of isolation, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is taking part in a major international meeting for the first time at the Arab League summit on Friday. Assad himself is likely to be the focus of the summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. For the ruler, who is accused of war crimes such as the use of chemical weapons, participation is a great symbolic success.
Assad arrived in Jeddah on Thursday. Saudi Arabia’s state television on Thursday broadcast images of Assad’s welcome at the airport by the Deputy Governor of the Mecca region, Prince Badr bin Sultan. Participation in the summit in the Saudi Arabian port city marks Assad’s return to the big diplomatic stage after years of extensive isolation as a result of the Syrian civil war.
The last Arab summit Assad attended was in Libya in 2010. The Arab League currently consists of 22 countries. Syria was excluded in November 2011 after the Assad government cracked down on democracy protests.
In the conflict that broke out after the protests were suppressed, more than 500,000 people have been killed to date, millions of Syrians have been displaced and the country’s infrastructure and industry have been severely damaged.
Saudi Arabia severed ties with Assad’s government in 2012. After that, Riyadh openly campaigned for the overthrow of the ruler and supported rebel groups in the Syrian civil war. Now it is obviously more important for the regional power – also in view of the military successes of Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran – to present itself as a mediator in the region.
The rapprochement is also favored by the resumption of diplomatic relations between the long-rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran, mediated by China.
At the beginning of May, the Arab League accepted Syria again, and Saudi Arabia invited Assad to Jeddah. Several states in the Syria region had already signaled concessions. In 2018, the United Arab Emirates resumed relations with Damascus, and later the Gulf state invited Assad to the UN climate conference, which is scheduled to take place in Dubai in November.
Qatar is one of the opponents of the rapprochement with Syria. The Gulf Emirate does not want to normalize its relations with Damascus for the time being, but does not oppose re-admission to the Arab League.
Assad’s presence at the Jeddah summit, meanwhile, does not guarantee progress in ending the war in Syria. In the northwest of the country, which remains under rebel control, there have been repeated mass protests against Assad’s return to the Arab League. It is also unclear whether the organization can wrest concessions from the Syrian ruler on issues such as the future of Syrian refugees or the increasing trade in the stimulant Captagon.
In addition to rapprochement with Assad’s government, the summit is likely to deal with two conflicts: the power struggle between two rival generals in Sudan and the civil war in Yemen that has been going on for years, in which the host Saudi Arabia is itself a party to the conflict.
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