A visit that comes after ten years of stalemate in relations, as the UAE broke the wall of isolation and opened the door for Syria to return to its normal place among its Arab brothers, after the reopening of the UAE embassy in December 2018.
With a warm welcome, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the UAE, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, received the Syrian President, at his break in Al Marmoom in Dubai.
This visit, the first of its kind during the last decade of Syrian-Emirati relations, is of great importance because of its implications, as the visit of the Syrian President to one of the most important Arab, regional and global actors, the UAE, bears, according to observers, several very important indicators of “the beginning of the end of isolation from Syria.”
Al-Assad’s visit to the UAE as the first Arab country he has visited in a decade for a Syrian president comes about 10 months before the next Arab summit scheduled in Algeria on November 1.
The visit again opens the door to the possibility of Syria returning to its vacant seat in the Arab League, after the Arab foreign ministers, in an emergency meeting at the end of November 2011, suspended Syria’s membership in the Arab League, following the outbreak of its crisis.
Observers link the Syrian president’s choice for the UAE to be his first Arab and foreign station after Moscow, linked to two indicators, according to Al-Ain news.
The first is the important statement made by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE in Moscow in November 2021, in which he stressed that “regional cooperation is necessary to start the path of Syria’s return to its surroundings.”
However, he stressed, on the other hand, that this matter “is inevitable, and this also requires an effort from the Syrian side as well as an effort from colleagues in the Arab League.”
The second indicator is due to the visit of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Damascus in November of last year, the first visit by an Emirati official of this level in more than 10 years.
Algeria, which intends to host the next Arab summit, was also one of the first Arab countries alongside the UAE, which defended Syria’s return to its seat in the Arab League, “as one of the founders of the League” and was also one of the opponents of the decision to suspend its membership.
In a media interview in February 2020, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for “Syria’s return to the Arab League,” and said that it “deserves to return to the League of Arab States, because it is faithful to its principles and foundation, and it is one of the most ancient Arab countries.”
In August 2021, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra also stressed that the file of Syria’s return to the Arab League “is an essential topic in the preparations for the upcoming Arab summit.”
He stressed that “Syria’s seat in the Arab League will be an advanced step in the process of reunification and overcoming internal difficulties.”
At a time when Arab countries expressed their support for the return of Syria to the Arab League, led by the UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and the Sultanate of Oman, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the Arab League, revealed the fact that Damascus returned to its vacant seat in the regional organization.
He explained in press statements earlier this month that the issue of “Syria’s return to its seat in the Arab League was not discussed in the general context or the general Arab framework in the meeting of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers, neither in the consultative meeting nor in the ministerial meetings of the regular session of the League Council.”
He justified that, “This issue will be left to bilateral contacts between the Arab countries. If there is an agreement to return to membership, the matter will be resolved.”
He continued, “But I have not observed the existence of this consensus yet,” which opens the door to all possibilities regarding Syria’s return to its vacant seat in the Arab League after 10 years of absence, while observers are looking at the Syrian President’s visit to the UAE and before that the visits of Arab delegations to Damascus said it might “be a glimmer of hope” for the return of the founding member of the largest Arab body.