Saudi Arabia Requests Meeting Over Syria’s Return to the Arab League

April 16, 2023 written by Bushra Bani-Salman

The Arab League had suspended Syria’s membership to the Arab League after the Bashar Al-Assad government’s violent suppression of pro-democracy movements in 2011. Arab diplomacy talks are back to work with Syria to discuss the possibility of Syria’s return to the Arab League, as well as normalizing relations in general.

The Syrian civil war resulted in the deaths of over 500,000 people and forced around half of the Syrian population out of their homes. After 12 years of civil war in Syria, Saudi Arabia has requested ministers and top officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan to meet on the issue. Arab countries had shunned Al-Assad, but Saudi Arabia has now reconsidered due to rapprochement with Iran, Syria’s regional ally.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is facing pushback from key allies. At least five Arab League members refused to readmit Syria. One being Qatar, the state’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said in a television interview that “nothing is proposed and it is all speculation”. 

In the same week, Saudi Arabia and Yemen had an exchange of around 900 political prisoners. Saudi ambassador to Yemen held talks with Iran-backed Houthi rebels to end Yemen’s civil war that has taken place since the Saudi-led military intervention in 2015. The prisoner swap is the first of many prospective efforts to end the war in Yemen.