Syria’s Participation in Arab Summit: A New Beginning for Arab-Syrian Relations

Observers believe that Assad’s participation constitutes an important step towards purifying the Arab atmosphere and ensuring the return of security and stability to Syria with the help of the Arabs.

Experts considered that Syria’s return to the Arabs, and their return to it, is an urgent necessity dictated by considerations of national security and common Arab supreme interests, and that it will contribute to getting Syria out of the crises that afflicted it for more than a decade of years, and its return to playing its full Arab role.

The item on Syria in the final statement of the Jeddah summit

The closing statement of the Arab Summit included a clear reference to the Arab effort to help Syria out of its ordeal, which, according to observers, reflected the level of progress in relations between Damascus and the rest of the Arab capitals.

The closing statement of the Arab Summit stated:

• We welcome the decision of the League Council meeting at the ministerial level, which included the resumption of the participation of Syrian government delegations in League Council meetings and its affiliated organizations and agencies.
• We hope that this will contribute to supporting the stability of the Syrian Arab Republic, preserving its territorial integrity, resuming its natural role in the Arab world, and the importance of continuing and intensifying Arab efforts aimed at helping Syria overcome its crisis, in line with the common Arab interest and the fraternal relations that unite all Arab peoples.

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Professor of International Relations at the University of Damascus, Dr. Aqil Mahfoud, said in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”:

• President al-Assad’s presence at the Jeddah summit was a source of great interest, and represented a defining moment in the crisis in Syria, in the Syrian-Arab relations, and in the Arab summits.
• Syria’s participation revealed the size of the efforts made by various parties, especially Saudi Arabia and before that the UAE and others, to overcome obstacles, and the extent of the Arab capitals’ keenness to start a new phase in Arab policies towards Damascus. Syria met it in this endeavor, and it showed an active response in this regard.
• The final statement clearly expressed that the Syrian return is not conditional, but rather a complete return of elements and pillars.
• The statement included the priorities of Syrian politics, such as emphasizing Syria’s unity and sovereignty, rejecting the presence of illegal foreign forces, and supporting Damascus and helping it overcome the crisis. This is an important message to all those who reject or have reservations about its return to the Arab League.

Crowning Arab efforts

Professor of International Relations at the American University in Cairo, Dr. Raed Al-Azzawi, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:

• Syria’s return to the Arab summits was an urgent necessity, which paved the way for its decision to return to occupy its seat in the League of Arab States prior to the convening of the Jeddah summit, due to the great Arab efforts in this regard.
• Arab decision makers are now well aware that resolving the Syrian crisis and stopping its repercussions on various Arab countries requires the return of Damascus to its Arab surroundings, and that this crisis is the result of internal tensions and conflicts caused by interventions, and therefore the Arabs must play their role in ending this crisis.
• Many Arab countries took the initiative to open up to Damascus to search for ways to solve the Syrian crisis, which is a complex external and internal crisis, as the Syrians need to establish peace in their country in order to cut off the path of negative interference, and here the necessity of the Arab role in stopping these interventions and blocking the way for them emerges.
• What happened in Jeddah is a culmination of all this, and opens the door to ending the Syrian crisis and the suffering of its people, as it is necessary later to end the forms of foreign military occupation of parts of Syria by regional and international powers, which contribute to pricing the conflict and pitting the Syrians against each other, and jeopardizing the unity of their country and the entirety of it. Arab national security is at risk.