Saudi Arabia is hosting a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in Jeddah this Friday (April 14) to discuss the issue of normalization or not with President Assad. Syria’s reintegration into the Arab League will also be discussed.
The meeting is expected to bring together senior officials from the six GCC countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in addition to ministers from Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. ” The main objective is to discuss the situation in Syria said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari, adding that Saudi Arabia had convened the meeting in an “advisory” capacity through the GCC.
On the issue of Syria’s reintegration into the Arab League and his eventual return to the Arab family, Morocco’s reluctance could not be more evident. They are also other member countries of the League of Arab States yet allies of Saudi Arabia to support in the same direction, such as Egypt, Kuwait, or even Qatar and Yemen.
All these beautiful people condition the return of Syria to the Arab bosom. The recalcitrants are asking for a consensus to take place, political normalization in Syria, an end to the repression of opponents of the Syrian regime and the application of the peace plan negotiated with Bashar al-Assad has remained null and void since the temporary exclusion of Syria from the League of Arab States in 2011. Some, like Morocco, even have other demands.
According to the “Wall Street Journal”, it is no more and no less a question of Syria’s support for the separatist movement of the polisario, to which the Al Assad regime has continued to provide assistance since the Green March in 1975.
Syria hosts on its territories training camps in the care of Iranian Hezbollah in guerrilla warfare and terrorism dedicated to elements of the Polisario. Despite this, for three or four years Morocco has qualified its position regarding a return from Syria. To do this, it requires an Arab consensus and a unanimous coordination of the Arab countries.
That said, after years of boycotts, Arab countries in the wake of Saudi Arabia are trying to bring Syria out of its isolation, although thethe idea is not unanimous. The Saudis are even considering the presence of the Syrian president in summit of the Arab League, on May 19, welcoming in this regard this week, the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and this, after a decade of severance of relations between the two countries.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Prince Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister and Faisal Mekdad, his Syrian counterpart, discussed ” necessary measures to achieve a comprehensive political settlement of the Syrian crisis that can put an end to all its repercussions, achieve national reconciliation and contribute to the return of Syria to its Arab environment and the resumption of its natural role in the Arab world »
Last month, Riyadh announced that it was in talks with Damascus regarding the resumption of consular services between the two countries. Another Arab diplomat said that “it is possible” Faisal Mekdad, attends the Jeddah meeting “to present the Syrian point of view”, explaining that the participating countries have not yet received the agenda of the meeting. meeting. Moreover, on the side of the refractory in February 2022, Doha hosted a meeting aimed at “improving the performance of the Syrian opposition” in the face of the restoration by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in recent years of part of its position. diplomatic and military control of most parts of the country.
But recently, there have been regional efforts that have been made to end Syria’s isolation. In this regard, over the past two months, the Syrian president has visited Oman and the United Arab Emirates, the only Arab countries visited by Assad since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011.