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After 12 years, Syria has finally returned to the Arab League.
On May 19, local time, the 32nd Arab League Summit was held in Jeddah, a city in western Saudi Arabia, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was invited to participate. This is the first time that a Syrian president has been invited to participate in the Arab League summit since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011.
Many parties support Syria's return to the Arab League
On the evening of May 18, local time, Assad's special plane landed in Jeddah, and the Secretary-General of the Arab League and a number of Saudi officials greeted him at the airport. According to Syria's newspaper Fatherland, Assad will speak at the Arab League summit and hold bilateral meetings with several Arab leaders.
The day before, Syrian Foreign Minister Meqdad led a delegation to participate in the preparatory meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab League summit, which was welcomed by many parties. Arab League Secretary-General Gheit said that the Arab League summit will witness Syria's return to the Arab League as a full member. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal affirmed the positive significance of Syria's return to the Arab League in his speech to maintain the unity of Arab countries.
After the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011, Western countries led by the United States imposed diplomatic isolation and sanctions on Syria, and in this context, the Arab League suspended Syria's membership and closed the embassies of many Arab countries in Syria. However, in recent years, Arab countries have continuously sought to normalize relations with Syria, and many countries have reopened embassies in Syria or border crossings with Syria. On 7 May, the League held a special meeting at the level of foreign ministers and agreed to restore the membership of the Syrian Arab League.
According to Wang Jin, an expert on the Middle East, Syria's return to the Arab League camp is due to many reasons. One is that the Syrian issue itself has changed. When the Syrian crisis erupted 12 years ago, some Middle Eastern countries questioned whether the Syrian government could survive the opposition. Some Arab countries, led by Qatar, pushed for a resolution to suspend the Syrian government's membership in the Arab League. But over the years, the Syrian government has won battles and regained large swathes of the country. The legitimacy of the Syrian government is recognized and supported by the majority of the population in the country. "To solve the Syrian problem, it is necessary to restore official communication with the Syrian government, which makes Syria's return to the Arab League a natural thing."
Second, Syria's participation in the Arab League summit has also gone through a game. For example, Qatar and other countries have clearly opposed Syria's return, while Iraq, Jordan and other countries have an ambiguous attitude. Before the summit, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and other camps supporting Syria's return successfully lobbied, and finally the Arab League member states reached a consensus to invite Syria to return. But it also means that the challenges facing Syria are far from over. "The fact that the Syrian government is invited to the summit does not mean that all Arab countries will restore relations with Syria, and member states can freely decide whether or not to resume diplomatic relations with Syria according to their own vision," said Arab League Secretary-General Gheit.
The "tide of reconciliation" in the Middle East has boosted the process of Syria's return
From Syria's point of view, being invited to the Arab League summit is undoubtedly an important step for Syria to return to the Arab family.
Many Syrians expressed the hope that Syria's return to the Arab League can be a new beginning, so that everything can return to peace and stability, and the Syrian people who have been displaced can return to their homeland.
Wang Jin said that for Syria, returning to the Arab family is of great significance. Politically, the legitimacy of the Syrian government has once again gained widespread recognition in regional countries, winning a crucial step for the Assad government to gain a more favorable position in the domestic political dialogue.
Economically, the return to the Arab League means that Syria will have the opportunity to receive economic assistance from Arab countries again and increase economic and trade exchanges with each other, which is of great significance for Syria's reconstruction and will also help the Syrian government break a series of sanctions and blockades imposed by Western countries led by the United States.
In terms of security, the return to the Arab League will certainly promote a series of agreements between the Syrian government and other Arab governments on regional security affairs, help to ease the protracted proxy war in Syria by political means, and help Syria's neighboring countries achieve more lasting and stable security.
Since the beginning of this year, a round of "reconciliation waves" has been set off in the Middle East. In March, with the mediation of the Chinese side, representatives of Saudi Arabia and Iran held a dialogue in Beijing to announce that Saudi Arabia and Iran had agreed to resume diplomatic relations. Subsequently, the civil war in Yemen and the domestic political problems in Iraq ushered in some new opportunities for reconciliation. On May 18, local time, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia also agreed to gradually strengthen economic and trade exchanges between the two sides and open up new channels of cooperation.
Wang Jin said that the easing of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran has made a series of geopolitical games and proxy conflicts in the Middle East enter a period of calm, which has created a good external environment and foundation for the easing of relations between Syria and other Arab countries. The Arab countries have also shown increasing coordination and autonomy, which has greatly reduced the influence of the United States in the Middle East.
"Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict last year, the United States has been lobbying Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries to condemn and even sanction Russia. In the second half of last year, the United States repeatedly asked Arab countries to increase oil production capacity. However, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries not only did not buy it, but also formed an 'OPEC+' mechanism with Russia to make a decision to cut production. This shows that regional countries want to maintain a more independent foreign policy and face the international community with a unified position, rather than obeying the will of the United States," Wang said.
The United States will continue to stir up Syria
The Middle East is warm, and the United States naturally does not want to see it.
On May 18, local time, US State Department Deputy Spokesman Patel replied to the media, "We do not support normalization of relations with the Assad regime, nor do we support our partners doing so."
Previously, in the face of the easing of relations between Arab countries and Syria, the United States raised "criticism" on the one hand, and continued to extend unilateral sanctions against Syria on the other hand. At the same time, the US military did not forget to plunder Syria's oil resources.
"The United States still hopes to continue to intervene in the Middle East and realize its own hegemony of discourse", in Wang Jin's view, the United States will continue to swim against the current and obstruct it in the future, constantly creating obstacles to the realization of peace and stability in the Middle East.
"First, in the political realm, the United States will continue to deny the legitimacy of the Syrian government and join Western allies in boycotting the Syrian government's right to attend international conferences or international mechanisms. Economically, the United States will continue to strengthen the containment of the Syrian economy and erect obstacles to Syria's economic and social reconstruction by imposing a series of sanctions."
In addition, at the military level, Wang Jin believes that the United States will not back down on the issue of stationing troops in Syria and hopes to maintain a military presence. Although the United States claims that these military presences are to monitor and combat local extremist and terrorist organizations, in fact, these US troops in Syria will in a large sense become obstacles to the future security reconstruction and security process in Syria. "Therefore, the United States will still play the role of a spoiler in the future, and this role will probably be boycotted by Arab countries and condemned by the international community," Wang said.
(Check out the news Knews reporter Yang Zhen)