On September 29, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was filmed having a public warm chat with his Bahraini counterpart Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly session. The Saudi-owned al-Arabiya, which released the footage of the meeting, quoted an Arab source as saying that the meeting is a part of the efforts to solve the crisis in Syria.
This was the first time Syrian and Bahraini officials have been seen together since 2011, when Bahrain, along with many other Arab countries, cased its relations with Syria over the unrest there.
A day later, Al Khalifa said during an interview on al-Arabiya that the meeting was not “pre-arranged” and revealed that he met Syrian foreign minister many times over the last few years privately. The Bahraini minster also confirmed that this was a part of the ongoing efforts to end the war in Syria.
When asked about the impact of the meeting, Al Khalifa stressed that the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) only deal with legitimate governments to solve any issue, in a hint to the Damascus government. Al Kahlifa went on to say that the Damascus government should impose control on every inch of Syria and expressed his country’s support for any initiative that would help Syrians return to their country.
The last two months witnessed several signs of improvement in the relations between Syria and GCC states. On September 15, a report of the Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper revealed that security officials of the UAE and Syria met in Damascus. Later, Syrian opposition sources accused Saudi and UAE-backed opposition figures of secretly working to help Damascus in its goal to recapture the governorate of Idlib.
Local observers believe that Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are interested in restoring their relations with Syria in order to counter the growing influence of Turkey and Iran in the war torn country. Furthermore, these three countries view the Muslim Brotherhood party as a terrorist threat, just like the Damascus government.
Howmany Palestinian civilians Israeli terror state killing everyday in Palestine for that Trump regime, May, Macron, Merkel and Putin are responsible because they defending Israeli terror state in Palestine.
Thanks for sharing the video !! Ahed Tamimi for President !!
Putin and Assad should focus on Kurdistan that US regime and his stooges is building very fast in Syria and in Iraq.
South Front does have a point here, but Damascus might attempt to lobby Bahrain and the UAE to take Qatars side in their feud with Saudi Arabia because they benefit from keeping the peninsula divided among themselves.
“These three countries view the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist threat”. Yet Saudi Arabia is the home of the Muslim Sisterhood that was founded by Huma Abedin’s mother. She was Hillary’s personal assistant. The US and Israel is trying to turn the GCC into MESA, a Gulf Sunni alliance, a ME “NATO”, aimed totally at the Shia Crescent. Even enemies talk, and how to get rid of the jihadists in Idlib without them destroying Turkey and Europe is everyone’s problem.
And the silly woman cries that she was not elected! Maybe it was because you had a terrorist headchopper as an adviser with benefits!!
If you cant beat them join them.
a very stupid move if accepted.
Meh. I always go by the maxim states have no friends just interests. If its in the gcc states interest to support the syrian state then they will be “friendly” with them until that changes.
And that is fine. But yes Id be mighty suspicious too.
true as it come to be the reality of this world.
Having failed with their Syrian regime change policies, strongly suspect the GCC are very conscious of the potential for Syrian pay-back – given the GCC recruited and funded sectarian proxies who have ravaged Syria for nearly a decade.
The Syrian state will certainly not forget the GCC’s regime change and sectarian proxy war policies of last decade in any hurry. But right now, Syria can well play along with ‘re-establishing relations’ to aid securing internal peace negotiations (ie, stop the GCC funding and arming sectarian terrorists) – thereafter, Syria can start looking hard at the GCC – revenge is a dish best served (ice) cold.
Very true and I await the day it happens. I will drink to Syria’s health!
This wouldn’t have anything to do with the US pullout from Bahrain?
did they pull out or just take their aegis defence sys??
……s, cased its relations with Syria over the unrest there…. Very gracious of Southfront. I would have said “caused the unrest there”!