Syria’s 12 years of political isolation ends

Arab League foreign ministers voted on Sunday to readmit Syria into the organization, after a suspension that lasted over a decade due to the region-wide condemnation of President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on the 2011 protests-turned-civil-war.

Ministers held a closed meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, where the unfolding situation in Sudan was also on the agenda. Some members did not attend the session on Sunday. The most notable absentee was Qatar, which has backed Syria’s opposition against Assad.

Meanwhile, Syria said the “positive” move serves Arab interests. Some Arab states, including Qatar, have been opposed to normalizing relations with Assad without a political solution to the conflict. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry stressed that Doha’s position on normalization with the Syrian regime has not changed.

But others, like the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, have quietly reestablished contact in recent years.  The Arab ministers agreed to set up a contact committee of envoys from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and the Arab League head, to maintain direct contacts with Syria.