Arab foreign ministers on Sunday reintegrated the Syrian regime into 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 to tackle the huge reconstruction project in his country.

“The delegations of the government of the Arab Republic of Syria will again sit 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 Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abu el- Gheit.

Damascus, which did not immediately comment on what looks like an invitation, said it wanted to “dialogue” and “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 vast regions of Syria.

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”.

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 Doha.

Arab countries had supported rebels at the start of the war in Syria, which involved regional and international actors, fragmented the country, left around half a million dead and millions refugees and displaced.

Recently, Mr. Assad benefited from the earthquake of February 6, which caused thousands of deaths in Turkey and Syria and sparked international solidarity, as well as a radical change in the regional situation, with the warming between Riyadh and Tehran .

Saudi Arabia manages to “present itself as a master of the clocks on the Arab scene”, by showing that it no longer lets “the United Arab Emirates take diplomatic initiatives”, indicated to AFP Mr. Balanche.

Thus, the Emirates had reopened their embassy in Damascus in 2018 and Mr. Assad had reserved for them in March 2022 his first visit to an Arab country since the start of the war.

But 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 recently seen the representatives of Arab countries who refused until then 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.

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 rebel and military control. jihadists.

There, Sunday’s announcement was not well received.

“We had to flee our homes destroyed by Assad,” says Ghassan Mohammed al-Youssef, who lives in a camp for displaced people in the Idlib region. “Let the Arab leaders tell us where they want us to go now?” he told AFP.

By November 2011, 18 of the 22 Arab League members had suspended Syrian government participation in their meetings.

The pan-Arab organization had also imposed economic sanctions on Syria and the end of air links, after months of American and European economic measures against Syrian leaders and economic interests.

Sunday’s statement made no mention of these retaliatory measures.

Outside the Arab League, Turkey, a major supporter of anti-Assad since 2011, is also starting to warm up with Damascus.

“Syria’s regional isolation is officially broken, the next step will be normalization with Turkey,” confirms Mr. Balanche.

07/05/2023 17:44:23 – Cairo (AFP) – © 2023 AFP