DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received an invitation to next week’s Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the presidency said on Wednesday, the first such invitation since more than a decade.
On Sunday, the Arab League welcomed back Syria’s government, securing Assad’s return to the Arab fold after years of isolation.
Assad received an invitation from Saudi King Salman “to participate in the thirty-second Arab League summit, which will be held in Jeddah on May 19”, the Syrian presidency said in a statement.
Assad said the summit “will enhance joint Arab action to achieve the aspirations of the Arab peoples,” the statement added.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar al-Sudairi, delivered the invitation.
The last Arab League summit Assad attended was in 2010
in Libya.
The invitation comes a day after Riyadh and Damascus announced that work would resume at their respective diplomatic missions in Syria and Saudi Arabia, after more than a decade of severed relations.
A decision in March by Saudi Arabia and Iran, a close ally of Damascus, to resume ties also shifted the political landscape.
In April, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met Assad in Damascus on the first such visit since the war broke out.
Regional capitals have gradually been warming to Assad as he has stubbornly held onto power and clawed back lost territory with crucial support from Russia.
Türkiye, which supported early rebel efforts to topple the Syrian government and maintains a military presence in Syria’s north, has also shown interest in mending ties with Damascus.
The foreign ministers of Syria and Türkiye were meeting on Wednesday in Moscow for the first time since the start of the war.
Russia’s top diplomat proposed a roadmap to normalise Syrian-Turkish ties, with Iran’s foreign minister also attending the meeting.
Top diplomats from nine Arab countries discussed the Syria crisis in Saudi Arabia last month. — AFP
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