CAIRO, Egypt – An official said Friday that Arab diplomats are arranging an emergency summit in Cairo over the weekend to discuss the conflict in Sudan and the possibility of Syria rejoining the Arab League more than a decade after its membership was suspended.
According to the Arab League’s spokesperson Gamal Rushdy, the meeting will take place on Sunday. In recent weeks, some Arab nations, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have established contacts with Syrian President Bashar Assad and sent foreign ministers to Damascus. Syria’s foreign minister also visited Cairo and Riyadh in April, the first such visit in over a decade.
Syria’s membership in the 22-member Arab League suspended early in the war 12 years ago, and Arab countries subsequently imposed economic penalties. Since March 2011, the violence has killed almost 500,000 people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
On May 19, Saudi Arabia will host the next Arab League meeting, during which Syria’s membership is generally expected to be discussed. Some members, primarily Qatar, oppose Damascus’ return to the organization.
In November 2011, 18 of the Arab League’s 22 members backed suspending Syria’s membership. Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria all voted no, while Iraq abstained.
According to Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, there are enough votes among Arab League members for Syria to rejoin the organization.
According to Rushdy, the Arab League’s spokesman, the meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday would focus on reinstating Syria’s membership at the request of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
When queried about the vote count, Rushdy stated that Arab League decisions are normally reached through consensus, although each country can raise reservations.
An Iraqi official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said that, in addition to Syria and Sudan, recent developments in Israel and the Palestinian territories would be discussed.
Syria’s neighbors have begun to take measures towards rapprochement in recent years, as Assad has cemented authority over most of the nation with the support of his primary allies, Russia and Iran. The overtures have accelerated since the enormous February 6 earthquake in Turkey and Syria and the Chinese-mediated reestablishment of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which had backed opposite sides in the Syrian crisis.
Last month, Syria and Saudi Arabia announced plans to restore embassies and resume flights between the two nations for the first time in over a decade.
According to Syria’s pro-government Al-Watan daily, a foreign ministry group recently visited the Syrian embassy in Riyadh in preparation for the mission’s reopening in the coming weeks.
The foreign ministers will also examine Sudan, which has been in upheaval since the conflict between the country’s two opposing senior generals erupted in mid-April, killing over 400 people. After months of escalating hostilities between the military under Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and a rival paramilitary force known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, under Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the conflict started on April 15.
The fighting turned cities into battlegrounds, and international countries hastened to evacuate ambassadors and thousands of foreign people from Sudan.
SOURCE – (AP)
