A meeting of the foreign ministers of Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria was held in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday, to complement consultative meetings on the Syrian crisis.
The closed-door meeting was held with the participation of Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, who is visiting Jordan for the first time since the start of his country's crisis in 2011, according to Anadolu correspondent.
In addition to Mekdad, Foreign Ministers Ayman Safadi of Jordan, Sameh Shoukry of Egypt, Fuad Hussein of Iraq and Faisal bin Farhan of Saudi Arabia participated in the meeting.
The meeting discussed the details of the contacts held by the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in addition to Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, with the Syrian government, in order to present the Jordanian initiative, aimed at reaching a political solution to the Syrian crisis, paving the way for Syria's return to the Arab League.
It was the first talks between the Syrian government and a range of Arab states since the decision to suspend Syria's membership in the Arab League in 2011 after cracking down on protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
Jordan called on Syria to partner with Arab countries in developing a roadmap to end the conflict and address the issues of refugees, detainees, drug smuggling and Iran-backed militias there, all of which affect neighboring countries.
Bilateral meeting
Jordan's Foreign Ministry said Minister Ayman Safadi met his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad bilaterally ahead of the broader meeting of the foreign ministers of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in Amman.
The meeting comes about three weeks before the Arab summit in Riyadh on May 3, 19, and two weeks after talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah between the Gulf Cooperation Council and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq that did not reach an agreement on Syria's possible return to the Arab League.