Syria attends first Arab League meeting in 11 years
3 Min Read
Syrian officials took part in a preliminary meeting on Monday ahead of the summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
-
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad addresses the new members of parliament in Damascus, Syria on August 12, 2020. (Reuters)
Syria ended its decade-long exile from the Arab League on Monday, as officials convened for a preliminary meeting ahead of the summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan told the meeting, during a live broadcast by state TV channel Al Ekhbariya, "I... take this opportunity to welcome the Syrian Arab Republic to the League of Arab States," adding that he was "looking forward to working with everyone to achieve what we aspire to."
Yesterday, a Syrian delegation led by Economy Minister Mohammad Samer Khalil landed in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah ahead of the upcoming Arab League Summit, which is set to take place on Friday.
According to Sputnik, the delegation includes Presidential Affairs Minister Mansour Fadlallah Azzam and other Syrian officials and journalists,
The Syrian presidency said Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad received an invitation to next week's Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the first such invitation since the war on the country broke out.
The Arab League last Sunday welcomed Syria's government back into the bloc.
The invitation comes 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 ties.
The Kingdom severed ties with the Syrian government in 2012. However, in April, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with Al-Assad in Damascus on the first such visit since the war broke out.
On the other hand, the United States and Britain said they still opposed relations with the Syrian government but would work with Arab states that are re-establishing relations.
Qatar also opposed Syria rejoining the Arab League and echoed on Sunday Washington's position against normalizing ties with Damascus. But the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari, said Doha will always support anything that brings about Arab consensus, stressing that the Gulf country will not be an obstacle to that process.
Read more: Syria Arab League readmission is in defiance of US warnings: Bloomberg
UAE invites Assad to UN Climate Conference COP28 in Dubai
The UAE Embassy in Damascus reported on Monday that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has invited Syrian President Bashar Assad to the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which will be held in Dubai.
The United Nations Climate Conference will be held from November 30 to December 12.
In a statement, the embassy revealed that the Syrian President received the UAE Ambassador to Syria, AbdulHakeem Ebraheem Yousef AlTabour Al-Nuaimi, who delivered an invitation from UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to participate in the COP28 conference.
