Arab international ministers meet forward of Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia

BEIRUT (AP) — Arab international ministers met Wednesday in Saudi Arabia forward of the Arab League’s annual summit within the kingdom to debate the upcoming gathering’s agenda and draft resolutions.

This 12 months’s summit, beginning Friday within the metropolis of Jeddah, will mark the readmittance of war-torn Syria into the 22-member league, after a 12-year suspension. Syria’s membership was frozen following Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on the 2011 mass protests in opposition to his rule. The nation rapidly descended right into a brutal civil warfare that has killed practically half one million folks and displaced half of the nation’s pre-war inhabitants of 23 million.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad held bilateral conferences this week within the kingdom with a number of of his counterparts as Damascus continues to attraction for much-needed funding within the war-torn nation — crippled by the battle and Western sanctions — and has moved to revive ties with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq.

Syria’s return to the Arab fold comes as Damascus can also be attempting to amend ties with Turkey, a key backer of the armed Syrian opposition teams within the nation’s northwest.

But a number of Arab nations stay skeptical of Syria’s return to the league, primarily Qatar.

Qatar’s high diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, mentioned Wednesday that his nation opposes Syria’s return however that it doesn’t need to stand “against the Arab consensus.” Each Arab nation, nonetheless, can unilaterally normalize relations with Syria, he mentioned.

For that to occur from Qatar’s perspective, Syria must go “through a just and comprehensive solution” to its battle, Sheikh Mohammed added.

The summit additionally comes as Arab governments are scrambling to resolve the battle in Sudan between the navy, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The combating within the East African nation, which broke out in mid-April, has left over 600 folks lifeless and displaced tens of 1000’s.

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