Arab states gather to discuss Syria reproachment
Arab countries gathered in Jeddah on Friday, evincing a strong inclination toward terminating Syria’s protracted tenure of diplomatic estrangement.
Ministers and top officials from the six Persian Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan met at Saudi Arabia’s request.
Up for discussion in the Red Sea city was Syria’s suspension from the Arab League, imposed after protests hit Syria in 2011.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government launched a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 which later snowballed into a full-blown foreign backed conflict involving militants and terrorists.
The 12-year war has killed more than half-a-million people and forced about half of Syria’s pre-war population from their homes.
On Wednesday, in the latest sign of an easing in tensions, Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad arrived in Jeddah, the first such visit since the war began. Mekdad and his Saudi counterpart discussed “the necessary steps” to end Damascus’s isolation, according to a Saudi statement on Wednesday.
The Jeddah meeting is one in a flurry of initiatives following Saudi Arabia and Iran’s landmark, Chinese-brokered announcement on March 10 that they would resume ties, seven years after an acrimonious split.
Earlier on Friday, an exchange of nearly 900 prisoners from Yemen’s civil war between the Houthi movement and a Saudi-led coalition got underway when the first flight left the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a.