JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Smiles, a handshake and what Tunisian President Kais Saied known as a “historic meeting” with the long-ostracized Syrian chief Bashar Assad.

The talks between the 2 presidents, held earlier than the beginning on Friday of the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia, buried recollections, and maybe the legacy, of the Arab Spring which began in Tunisia 12 years in the past. That collection of uprisings gave the North African nation its first style of democracy as protests rolled throughout the area, together with in Syria.

“Today, I am absolutely convinced of Tunisian support for Syria,” a press release from Saied’s workplace stated after what it known as the “historic” assembly.

Tunisia, reborn after its 2011 revolution which toppled autocratic ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was among the many fiercest critics of Assad. But Saied has largely trampled the beneficial properties of Tunisia’s revolution since his 2019 election, notably by assuming close to full powers after suspending the legislature in 2021 then dissolving it in his crackdown on corruption and dissent.

Tunisia resumed diplomatic relations with Syria in April, and Assad’s presence on the Arab League summit sealed Syria’s return to the membership of Arab nations.

The official TAP information company confirmed images of him and Assad greeting one another with smiles, a heat hand shake and a sit-down for critical talks. Assad was invited to the residence the place the Tunisian president was staying in Jeddah, the Saudi Arabian metropolis internet hosting the summit.

Syria was kicked out of the membership of Arab nations in 2011 at the beginning of its brutal civil conflict. That was months after Tunisia’s revolution.

“We stand together against the movement of darkness,” Assad stated, apparently referring to extremist teams that got here to dominate the Syrian opposition as his nation’s conflict floor on, and militants teams there drew numerous recruits from Tunisia.

In an interview with Tunisian tv, Assad stated that the North African nation “used to be a platform to propagate the (Islamist) mindset.”

“After my meeting with Kais Saied, I am now convinced that the Arab people hasn’t changed and Tunisia is the same,” he was quoted as saying by the Radio Mosaique.

Among quite a few figures jailed in Saied’s crackdown is Rached Ghannouchi, head of the reasonable Islamist occasion that triumphed in Tunisia’s first free elections in October 2011. Ghannouchi was additionally speaker of the parliament that Saied dissolved.

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