UAE says has invited Syrian president to UN climate conference

“Syrian President Bashar Assad has received the acting UAE Ambassador to Syria, AbdulHakeem EbraheemYousef AlTabour Al-Nuaimi, who presented him with an invitation from the president of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to participate in the COP28 conference,” the embassy announced in a statement on Monday.

The UN climate conference will take place from November 30 to December 12.

It comes days after Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz invited Assad to attend an Arab League summit scheduled to be held in the Persian Gulf kingdom next week.

Arab government representatives in Cairo has recently voted to return Syria to the Arab League after a 12-year suspension. All 13 of the 22 member states that attended the session endorsed the decision.

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

In recent years, Syrian government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, have managed to win back control of virtually all regions from terrorist groups.

Assad has already visited the UAE and Oman this year and is expected to visit other Arab states as well in the near future.