Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a recent interview with RT. Photo by RT, via al-Mayadeen TV.
Saudi Arabia is planning to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the upcoming Arab League summit that will be held in Riyadh, Reuters reported on April 2.
Syria’s membership in the Arab League was suspended 12 years ago after the outbreak of the war. Back then, Saudi Arabia supported the decision.
Two sources familiar with the plans told the news agency that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan will visit Damascus in coming weeks to hand Assad a formal invitation to attend the summit scheduled for May 19.
Another source said that discussions have been ongoing for more than a year over a list of demands from Saudi Arabia for Syria to meet as a condition to restore ties, including close cooperation on border security and work against drug trafficking.
Initial discussions for a visit by Prince Faisal to Damascus or by Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad to Riyadh were postponed because of the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, one of the sources told Reuters.
Last month, Saudi Arabia and Syria reached a breakthrough agreement to reopen their embassies after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Talks between Riyadh and Damascus gained momentum following a Chinese-brokered agreement to re-establish ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a close ally of al-Assad. The talks were sponsored by Russia.
Egypt also reapproached Syria recently. Just a day earlier, Mekdad paid a visit to Cario where he held a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry. An Egyptian security source told Reuters that the visit will help put in place steps to return Syria to the Arab League through Egyptian and Saudi Arabian mediation.
A report by the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya channel said that an official Egyptian delegation will visit Damascus after Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday in the second half of April, to arrange an Egyptian-Syria summit. A separate report by The Wall Street journal said that a meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and al-Assad will be arranged.
It is worth noting that El-Sisi made his first phone call to al-Assad to offer his condolences in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
All in all, it appears that Syria is well on course to reclaim its position within the Arab World. The war-torn country will gain much from this achievement not only politically, but also on the economic level. The United States and European Union attempts to isolate and pressure Damascus have apparently failed.
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Looks like the Saudis are out to punish Israel and the slaves of the Psionists. Not only will they welcome Bashar Hafez al-Asad back into the Arab league, they will also reestablish relations with Iran and now they will cut oil production by another 1 million barrels and help Russian economy. Karma’s a beetch. Slava Bashar Hafez al-Asad.
Will… what do you mean “Will”???
They already have!
Assad is already welcomed in the AL in all but paper from months ago… They have already established relations with Iran (a few weeks ago)… They have already announced a reduction in oil supplies (3 days ago) – all before your post “”predicting””” that these things ‘will’ happen. THEY’VE ALREADY HAPPENED!
But like you say – Karma’s a beetch. Slava Bashar Hafez al-Assad.
Arab nations must have just now realized their best future lies in unity and not division.
And hopefully they will bring the welfare funded banana republic of Israel, Netanyahu and his orthodox illegal settler leeches to their knees and make Israel stop committing crimes against humanity, abide by international law and comply with every UNSC resolution. Remember the USS Liberty.
He must stated he forgive all those who has played a role into destroy Syria and hope things to go back into a fruitful relationship for the next generations to come. as we all know Syrian is till being attack by the true enemy in the regions and they main backer still occupied a great portion our land in Syria,we must stop fighting among ourself and stay forcus in desdeing the enemies our our religion, believe, tradition and our independence. We must reignited the fight to free Palestine from the occupier aswell ,if we maintain a strong relationship base on our Islamic faith and brotherhood then we can over anything. Let a new era reignited between us belove brothers and let’s build a beautiful and string region amoung us and have beautiful relationship with our true partners around the world .
wouldn’t trust the Suadis, he might end up like Khashoggi
Very, very briefly, the short reply to your post is as follows:
Not really because Khasoggi was a CIA tool and also worked for the Y!ds. Arab countries don’t fall into the same category as the traitor Khashoggi. The Saudis may be sneaky but they’re slowly realising who their friends are and who their enemies are.
It looks like Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud aka Saudi Arabia’s ‘man-with-a-plan’, has seen that the ‘winds of change’ are blowing around the world with the declining global influence of the US, and he is making moves to see that his country is elevating to a better position in a multipolar world, and inviting Assad to build bridges in one such step.