ASSESSMENTS

The Arab League Mulls Whether to Readmit al Assad's Syria

Jan 30, 2019 | 11:50 GMT

People walk amid rubble of destroyed buildings in a street in the Tadamun neighborhood near the Palestinian Yarmuk camp in southern Damascus on Nov. 3, 2018.

People walk amid rubble of destroyed buildings in a street in the Tadamun neighborhood near the Palestinian Yarmuk camp in southern Damascus on Nov. 3, 2018. Damascus' erstwhile detractors are realizing it might be better to work with, rather than against, Bashar al Assad's government.

(LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Readmitting Syria to the Arab League would mark the first normalization of high-level ties with Damascus since other countries in the organization turned against Bashar al Assad's government in 2011.
  • Faced with the reality that their strategies to counter Damascus in the civil war have failed, some powerful Arab states are warming up to the idea that working against Syria is no longer as strategic an option as working with the country. 
  • The Arab League's reinstatement of Syria would not immediately pave the way for the rest of the world to welcome Damascus back into the international fold, but it would mark a first step in the lengthy process of enabling others to do business with al Assad's government.
 

After years in the diplomatic wilderness due to its civil war, Syria may soon come in from the cold, at least in its immediate neighborhood. Recent diplomatic developments attest to the shifting sentiment: Last month, Sudanese President Omar al Bashir became the first head of state from an Arab League state to visit his Syrian counterpart in Damascus since the Syrian conflict began almost eight years ago. The same month, the United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus after shuttering it in 2011. Neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon, which have suffered economically and politically from the raging conflict next door, are also mulling how and when to resume their strained ties with Syria. But among the clearest signs that Syria's standing in the Arab world is improving is the prospect that the Arab League will readmit Bashar al Assad's government, eight years after it voted to oust Damascus...

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