Report: Arab League FMs agree on Syria’s return to bloc after over 10 years

The ministers voted for Syria’s return into the fold at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo on Sunday.

The decision was made ahead of the Arab League Summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19 and amidst a flurry of regional normalisation of ties with Damascus in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, a group of Arab foreign ministers met with their Syrian counterpart in Jordan to discuss how to normalize diplomatic ties with Damascus and bring the country back to the Arab fold.

In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia — which once backed Takfiri militant groups in Syria — has reversed its stance on the Syrian government and is pushing its neighbors to follow suit.

The Saudi foreign minister visited Damascus last month for the first time since the kingdom cut ties with Syria more than a decade ago.

Syria’s foreign minister also visited Cairo and Riyadh in April.

Saudi Arabia has said, after its rapprochement with Iran, that a new approach was needed towards Damascus, which is under Western sanctions.

The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in November 2011, citing an alleged crackdown by Damascus on opposition protests. Syria has denounced the move as “illegal and a violation of the organization’s charter.”

Syria was one of the six founding members of the Arab League in 1945. In recent months, an increasing number of countries and political parties have called for the reversal of its suspension from the Arab League.