Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will arrive with an official visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, May 18, one day before the opening of the Arab League summit. The Lebanese analyst Nidal Sabi, an expert on the Syrian dossier, told TASS on Tuesday. According to the interlocutor, he received this information from diplomatic sources in Riyadh and Damascus.
"The Syrian leader will be met at the ramp by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and from the airport the motorcade will head to the palace to meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud," the expert noted. He did not rule out that President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan may join the Syrian-Saudi negotiations.
"There will be three stars at the upcoming summit, to be held in Jeddah on May 19: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Bashar al-Assad and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, head of the UAE," the expert stressed. - "The main outcome for Damascus will be the decision of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to help Syria rebuild its economy after the war." In addition, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi "will deal, in coordination with Damascus and the UN, with the problem of refugees and facilitate their return to their homes."
As Sabi stressed, "the Jeddah summit will go down in history as a summit to consolidate the Arab ranks, despite US and Western pressure that tried to prevent President Bashar al-Assad from attending." It will be the first Arab League summit since 2010 to host the Syrian leader.
Convergence with Damascus
A new stage of interaction between Damascus and its Arab neighbors began on May 1 following Amman consultations among the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria, which resulted in declaring a roadmap for Arab leadership in finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis and post-war reconstruction.
On May 7, the Arab League Council in Cairo decided to give Syria back its place in the regional community. As indicated in the official statement, "the full participation of Syria and Syrian government delegations in meetings of the League, as well as related organizations, shall resume as of May 7, 2023."
After the February 6 earthquake, most Arab states made a move to get closer to Syria and provided it with significant humanitarian aid. Damascus' membership in the Arab League was suspended in November 2011 in the midst of an internal crisis that escalated into armed conflict. By now, most of the Arab embassies have resumed their work in the Syrian capital.
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Based on materials from TASS