Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will make his comeback on Friday (May 18th) on the Arab diplomatic scene at a summit in Saudi Arabia that is also expected to address the conflicts in Sudan and Yemen.

Arriving Thursday night in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, Bashar al-Assad will participate in his first meeting of the Arab League in more than a decade. The pan-Arab organization had expelled the Syrian regime at the end of 2011 for its repression of a popular uprising, which degenerated into a devastating war, before reintegrating it on May 7.

The United Arab Emirates, which had re-established ties with Syria in 2018, has been very active in reintegrating Damascus into the group. The Syrian regime also benefited from a wave of solidarity after an earthquake that devastated large parts of Syria and Turkey on 6 February.

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Syria's pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said Assad was likely to meet "several leaders in bilateral meetings" during his visit to Jeddah.

The summit comes in a context of regional détente, marked by the rapprochement in recent months between the Saudi kingdom and its great regional rival, Iran. Riyadh has also recently re-established its consular services with Damascus.

"Redesigned" map

As host of the meeting, Saudi Arabia is also making diplomatic efforts to try to find a solution to regional conflicts. This is the case for Yemen, mired in a war for more than eight years and where it supports the government against the Houthi rebels, supported by Tehran.

The wealthy Gulf monarchy has also played a leading role in evacuating thousands of civilians from Sudan, the scene of deadly fighting for the past month, and is hosting representatives of the warring parties for talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia "has become in the eyes of all observers a peacemaker (...) calling for an end to differences and conflicts," Kuwaiti commentator Jawad Ahmed Bukhamseen wrote in an op-ed published this week in the Saudi daily Okaz.

In addition to conflicts in the Middle East, the 32nd Arab League summit is expected to address more international topics such as the war in Ukraine and "the global economic crisis," Khaled Manzlawiy, the Arab League's deputy secretary-general for political affairs, wrote in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. "The world is going through a perilous phase of history at a time when the map of international relations is being redrawn," he said, adding that a unity of Arab countries could "make their voices heard not only in the region, but throughout the world."

'Internal disagreements'

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's largest economy and the world's largest crude exporter, has recently strengthened relations with China and coordinated its oil policy with Russia, while maintaining close ties with the United States, its longtime security partner.

The Arab League recently stressed the need to play a "leading role" in order to reach a settlement in Syria. While the fighting has largely fallen silent, the war has left about half a million dead, as well as millions of refugees and displaced persons.

Syria, for its part, is banking on full normalization with Arab countries, including the wealthy Gulf monarchies, to finance the country's costly reconstruction. Countries such as Qatar, which has strongly opposed President Assad since the beginning of the war in Syria, are however very reluctant to move closer to Damascus.

For Saudi Arabia, the summit will be a success if it leads to concrete commitments from Damascus on issues such as the return of refugees and trafficking in captagon - of which Syria is one of the main exporters - according to Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. But Arab League summits have "often been characterized by internal disagreements and indecision," he said. "So the bar is not very high."

With AFP

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