Saudi Arabi to Invite Syrian President to Arab League Summit

Saudi Arabia intends to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend the Arab League summit in Riyadh on May 19, Reuters said on Sunday, citing two sources.

According to the sources, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud is expected to visit Damascus early next week to hand Assad an official invitation to the summit.

Syria was suspended from the League of Arab States in November 2011 after the escalation of armed conflict in that country.

And after the failure of forcing the Syrian authorities to make concessions in favor of the opposition, most Arab countries recalled their ambassadors from Damascus and joined the economic boycott of Syria.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and several other countries provided military and financial assistance to illegal armed groups fighting against the Syrian government during the conflict.

In recent years, several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain, have resumed the work of their diplomatic missions in Damascus, but the issue of returning Syria as a member of the Arab League still raises controversy among its member states.

The Arab League, formerly known as the League of Arab States, was founded on March 22, 1945, in Cairo by seven Arab countries, namely Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan (now Jordan), and Yemen. Now, the organization has 22 member countries.

Reuters said earlier, quoting unnamed sources, that Saudi Arabia and Syria had agreed to open two embassies that had remained closed since 2011 when the two countries cut off diplomatic relations.