The Arab League will hold in Cairo next Sunday two extraordinary meetings of Arab foreign ministers to discuss the war in Sudan and the issue of Syria's return to the League, and the Secretary-General of the League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said that Syria's return to the League is very likely before the Arab summit scheduled in Riyadh on May 19.
Agence France-Presse quoted a senior diplomat – who asked not to be named – that "it was decided to hold two extraordinary sessions of the Council of the Arab League at the level of Arab foreign ministers on Sunday," with the first session to be devoted to discussing the issue of returning Syria to occupy its seat in the League, while the second session will discuss events in Sudan.
The meeting devoted to Sudan will discuss the situation in the country "in all its dimensions: political, security, humanitarian, social and economic", according to the previous source.
According to the diplomat himself, a closed-door consultative meeting of Arab foreign ministers will also be held ahead of the two extraordinary sessions.
Egyptian Presidency
These meetings will be chaired by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the League Council.
In the Jordanian capital, Amman, a consultative meeting was held last Monday with the participation of the foreign ministers of Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt, during which the ministers discussed ways to return Syrian refugees from neighboring countries and extend the control of the Syrian state over its territory.
In mid-April, a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries was held in the Saudi city of Jeddah, in which Egypt, Iraq and Jordan also participated to discuss the issue of Syria's return to the Arab League.
Days after the Jeddah meeting, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan visited Damascus, the first Saudi official visit to Syria since the rupture between the two countries with the start of the conflict in Syria 12 years ago.
Aboul Gheit's Statement
The Secretary-General of the Arab League said in a television interview on Wednesday that the activation of the mechanism for Syria's return to the League must take place in stages, explaining that the matter "begins with a meeting and discussion, then a consensus (between the member states of the League), and then an invitation is submitted to Syria.
"Then Syria will come and participate in any other ministerial meeting and return to all the activities of the Arab League," Aboul Gheit said.
The suspension of Syria's membership in the Arab League was in response to the repression by the regime of Bashar al-Assad of peaceful protests calling for the overthrow of the regime that began in February 2011.