A new stage in the warming of relations between Syria and its neighbors. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was invited on Wednesday (May 10th) by King Salman of Saudi Arabia to participate in the next Arab summit to be held on May 19th in the kingdom.

This invitation comes after Syria's reintegration into the Arab League, from which it was excluded in 2011 following the popular uprising that degenerated into civil war.

The head of state "received an invitation from King Salman" of Saudi Arabia to participate in the annual summit held this year in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, the Syrian presidency said in a statement.

"The holding of this upcoming summit in Saudi Arabia will strengthen joint Arab action," the Syrian president said. The invitation was conveyed by Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Jordan, Nayef al-Soudairi.

The last annual Arab League summit attended by the Syrian head of state was held in 2010 in Sirte, Libya. President Assad was subsequently sidelined by his peers for his crackdown on the uprising that erupted in the wake of the Arab Spring in 2011.

In 2013, the anti-Assad opposition was even invited to occupy Syria's seat at an Arab League summit in Qatar, one of the countries that has backed Syrian rebels.

Arab foreign ministers, meeting Sunday in Cairo, decided to reintegrate Syria into the Arab League.

Normalization of relations

This dramatic reversal came against a backdrop of regional upheavals, including reconciliation between two rival powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, a great ally of the Syrian government.

Saudi Arabia, regional heavyweight and leader of the Gulf countries, and Syria announced two days later the reopening of their diplomatic representations, after eleven years of rupture.

In this context of regional warming, Turkey is also beginning to reconnect with the Syrian regime. The foreign ministers of the two countries met Wednesday in Russia, another power very close to Bashar al-Assad, for the first time since 2011.

The two ministers met in Moscow in the presence of their Russian and Iranian counterparts, and Russia proposed to draw up a roadmap to normalize relations between Damascus and Ankara.

The Syrian president had recently emerged from his pariah status, taking advantage of a show of solidarity in February after an earthquake devastated large parts of Syria and Turkey.

But the United States has indicated that it does not approve of reconciliation between Arab countries and Damascus. Syria "does not deserve to be readmitted to the Arab League," according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Involving regional and international actors, the war in Syria has claimed an estimated half a million lives. Nearly half of Syrians are now refugees or internally displaced persons, and parts of the territory are still outside government control.

With AFP

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