US President Joe Biden has extended the state of emergency on Syria for an additional year, after the Arab League announced the return of Damascus to fill its seat, which was frozen in 2011 due to the repression of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad popular protests demanding his ouster.
Biden said the Assad regime's actions continued to pose an extraordinary threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy.
For his part, Vidant Patel, deputy spokesman for the US State Department, expressed opposition to Syria's return to the Arab League for the time being, and said that his country will not normalize its relations with the Assad regime and that it does not support its allies taking steps in this direction.
A statement by the League said that the Arab foreign ministers officially adopted - in their meeting on Sunday - a resolution stipulating the return of Syria to occupy its seat in the League, and the resumption of the participation of Syrian government delegations in its meetings, after an absence of 11 years.
The Arab League's decision on Syria comes ahead of a summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19.
The Arab League suspended Damascus' membership in response to the Assad regime's suppression of protests calling for its overthrow that began in March 2011.