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Syria to be readmitted soon to Arab League: Jordanian FM

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: CNN
5 May 2023 07:53
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The Jordanian Foreign Minister says Syria had enough votes among the Arab League's 22 members to regain its seat.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speaks during a news conference after the meeting of a group of Arab foreign ministers in Amman, Jordan May 1, 2023 (Reuters)

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi revealed on Friday that Syria should soon be able to return to the Arab League but many challenges lie ahead in resolving the country's crisis.

Safadi told CNN that Syria had enough votes among the League's 22 members to regain its seat.

"The return to the league will happen. Symbolically it will be important but ... that is only a very humble beginning of what will be a very long and difficult and challenging process, given the complexity of the crisis after 12 years of conflict," the top Jordanian diplomat indicated.

The Jordanian minister considered that Syria's willingness to make real progress in resolving the crisis will help it win crucial Arab support to push for an eventual end to Western sanctions, which are a major obstacle to starting major reconstruction efforts.

In the same context, Reuters cited a spokesperson for the Arab League as saying on Thursday that Arab ministers will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the Syrian crisis, amid the regional push to normalize ties with Damascus.

A couple of days ago, Safadi had stressed to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov the need to take concrete steps to implement what was agreed upon in the Amman consultative meeting, which was attended by the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria.

At a meeting in Amman on Monday, Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad met for the first time with Arab ministers as part of a Jordanian initiative to end the Syrian crisis.

Several Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Egypt have recently re-engaged with Syria through high-level visits and meetings.

The final statement of the consultative meeting of the foreign ministers stressed the priority of ending the Syrian crisis and all the suffering it caused to the Syrian people, discussing the return of the displaced Syrians, and the need to end the presence of various terrorist organizations.