Arab League readmits Syria after 12-year suspension

Arab League-member states agreed to readmit Syria into the diplomatic bloc following an extraordinary session in Cairo on Sunday at the foreign minister level, ending a 12-year suspension stemming from Damascus’ 2011 crackdown on protests that spiraled into civil war.

Ending the suspension seemed a remote possibility until a few months ago, when, amid the humanitarian crisis that ensued after the deadly February 6 earthquake in Syria and Turkey, Egypt, along with other league member states, sought to pursue greater diplomatic openness with Damascus, starting the process that led to the reintegration decision.

Arab openness towards Syria developed rapidly in the following months. Cairo has been pushing for years against a suspension based on suppressing protests and to bring Damascus back into the fold but faced fierce opposition, mainly from Saudi Arabia. Ultimately, the recent breakthrough came after a change in Riyadh’s position.

Syria can resume its participation in league meetings immediately, as per the decision, which also called for a resolution to issues arising from the Syrian civil war, including the flight of refugees to neighboring countries and drug smuggling across the region.

The decision also noted that a contact group consisting of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and the league's secretary general will work with the Syrian government on “step-by-step” solutions to the Syrian crisis. Practical steps will include continuing to facilitate the delivery of aid in Syria.

Prior to Sunday’s decision, Egypt had been pursuing a relationship with Syria for “years,” government sources previously told Mada Masr. 

Recent months saw the foreign ministers of Cairo and Damascus exchange official visits for the first time in 12 years, which came to crown developments over the past two years on multiple tracks, most notably trade and security coordination, especially with regard to militant groups such as the Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front.

Last year, another space for Cairo and Amman to engage with Damascus opened up with the United States’ preliminary approval of the plan to pipe natural gas, likely of Israeli origin and purchased by Egypt, via infrastructure spanning Jordan and Syria to the energy-deprived Lebanon.

One of the sources had also noted that Cairo is “considering leveling up its charge d’affaires in Damascus to ambassador,” though they added that “it will take some time.”

Some Arab states that were previously opposed to an open relationship with Syria came around over the past couple of months, most notable of which is Saudi Arabia, which recently reopened consulates in Riyadh and Damascus, in a move that a regional diplomatic source previously told Mada Masr was “based on a Russian proposal” discussed between Riyadh and Washington.

Riyadh also extended an invitation to Assad to the upcoming Arab League summit, scheduled for May 19, for the first time since the boycott.

The Saudi pivot towards opening up to Damascus has been a cause for dissatisfaction for Cairo, several sources told Mada Masr at the time of Shoukry’s Syria trip last month, especially after Riyadh rejected multiple Egyptian initiatives for the gradual reintegration of Syria. According to one of the sources, Cairo is concerned that despite the regional partnership, Egypt is often not informed in advance on Saudi Arabia’s regional realignments — as was the case with the recent rapprochement with Iran, or two years ago with Qatar.

But, according to two of the sources, Cairo is not keen on making a fuss over Saudi Arabia’s changing position to avoid adding more fire to the already-tense relationship between the two countries. 

Relations between Cairo and Riyadh have been strained by the complexity of finalizing the security arrangements required to complete the transfer of Red Sea islands Tiran and Sanafir from Egyptian sovereignty to Saudi Arabia, a process further complicated by the absence of official relations between Saudi and Israel, which overlooks the Straits of Tiran between the islands and Egypt. 

Saudi Arabia’s reluctance to provide Cairo with financial support despite the severity of Egypt’s economic crisis has also heightened tensions, while a source in Riyadh told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that Saudi Arabia has also made communications with political figures who do not enjoy the approval of the Egyptian administration.

In mid-April, top diplomats from the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, met in Jeddah to discuss bringing Syria back into the league.

That meeting was followed by another one last week that brought together the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq in Amman, where they discussed the return of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, drug smuggling over Syria’s borders and the Syrian authorities extending their control over the whole Syrian territory.

* Writing by Ahmed Bakr