(Cairo) Arab foreign ministers on Sunday reinstated the Syrian regime in the Arab League, sidelined in 2011 after the repression of a popular uprising that degenerated into a devastating war.
This decision comes against a backdrop of reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad badly needs investors for the huge reconstruction project in his country.
“The delegations of the government of the Arab Republic of Syria will sit again in the Arab League”, indicates the text voted unanimously behind closed doors at the Arab League, based in Cairo.
President Assad is therefore “welcome if he wants to” at the annual summit of heads of state of the pan-Arab organization on May 19 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, said the secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit .
Damascus has said it wants to “strengthen cooperation” within a region that had ostracized the Syrian president from 2011.
Mr. Assad recently emerged from his persona non grata status, benefiting in particular from a surge of global solidarity in February after an earthquake that devastated large areas of Syria, as well as Turkey.
“Diplomatic Victory”
For Syria specialist Fabrice Balanche, “it’s a diplomatic victory” for Damascus, noting that there is “no longer any obstacle to the reopening of all Arab embassies in Syria”.
Mr. Aboul Gheit however indicated on Sunday that it was up to each Arab state to normalize or not its relations with Damascus.
This is a dramatic turnaround considering that in 2013 the anti-Assad opposition was able to take Syria’s seat at an Arab League summit in Qatar, one of the countries that backed Syrian rebels .
This rich Gulf state voted on Sunday for the reintegration of the Syrian regime into the pan-Arab organization but its position “on normalization” with Damascus “has not changed”, assured the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry Majed Al -Ansari.
Any normalization with Damascus should be linked to political progress “that meets the aspirations of the brotherly Syrian people”, he said.
The war in Syria has involved regional and international actors, fragmented the country, caused around half a million deaths and millions of refugees and displaced persons. If the main fronts have fallen silent, no political solution has yet been found.
In addition to the surge of international solidarity after the February 6 earthquake, Mr. Assad benefited from a radical change in the regional situation, with the warming between Tehran and Riyadh.
In mid-April, Syrian Foreign Minister Fayçal Moqdad made a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia, a first since the start of the conflict.
Damascus has also seen the recent parade of representatives of Arab countries which had hitherto refused to normalize their relations with Syria, some even making the departure of Mr. Assad a condition sine qua non.
Now, Syria is counting on full normalization with Arab countries, in particular the wealthy Gulf monarchies, to finance its costly reconstruction.
The “abandoned” Syrians
With time and the support of Russia and Iran, Mr Assad has regained control of most of the country, although four million people still live in territories in the north-west under the control of rebels and jihadists. .
The Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition alliance, said Sunday’s decision amounted to “abandoning” the Syrians, leaving them “without official Arab support”.
“It is unacceptable to allow (Assad) to avoid being punished for the war crimes he has committed against the Syrians,” said the group, based in Turkey.
In rebel areas too, the announcement was met with anger.
“We had to flee our homes destroyed by Assad,” says Ghassan Mohammed al-Youssef, in a camp for displaced people in the Idlib region. “Let the Arab leaders tell us where they want us to go now? “, he says to AFP.
In November 2011, 18 of the 22 members of the Arab League had suspended the Syrian government’s participation in their meetings.
The pan-Arab organization had also imposed economic sanctions on Syria and the end of air links.
Sunday’s press release said nothing about this.