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Rabat – Saudi Arabia’s attempt to bring back Syria, led by Bashar al-Assad, into the fold of the Arab League is facing pushback, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The kingdom’s plan to facilitate a “broader geopolitical realignment under way in the Middle East,” as the paper puts it, is facing resistance from some of its allies in the Arab World, as five countries have expressed refusal to reconcile with the al-Assad regime.
The countries include Morocco, Kuwait, Qatar, and Yemen, the paper said, citing Arab officials. Pushback is also coming from Egypt, who has even recently rekindled ties with Syria and is a major Saudi ally.
A simple majority is needed to readmit Syria into the Arab League, but a consensus would be needed to provide the legitimacy that al-Assad needs to persuade the international community into lifting their decade-long sanctions on his regime.
The Arab League formally suspended Syria’s membership on 16 November 2011 in response to the government’s use of force against peaceful anti-regime demonstrations that were part of what became known as the Arab Spring.
Since then, the protests have devolved into a full-fledged civil war that has made Syria a breeding ground for organizations such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The original basis for the 2011 suspension still stands, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said earlier today, confirming that Doha is against normalization with Syria, according to Reuters.
Reports of divergences over Syria’s readmission to the Arab fold come ahead of a meeting on Friday that will see the Arab League’s foreign ministers discuss the potential return of Syria to the regional organization.
