Syria’s readmission does not mean resumption of ties with Arab states: Arab League

By Ibrahim al-Khazen

ISTANBUL (AA) - Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Thursday said Syria’s readmission does not mean the resumption of relations between Damascus and league members.

On May 7, the Cairo-based Arab League reinstated Syria after 12 years of suspension over the regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

“The decision to reinstate Syria does not mean the resumption of ties between all Arab countries and Syria. It’s up to each country to decide according to its vision,” Aboul Gheit told the Saudi-run Al Arabiya television.

He added that Syria’s readmission “was an Arab effort to facilitate the process of resolving the Syrian crisis.”

"Syria accepted that its return to the Arab League is part of the solution of its crisis,” he added.

On Wednesday, Qatar said that it will not buck Arab consensus on Syria’s readmission into the pan-Arab body.

Qatar has been a vocal critic of the Bashar al-Assad regime since the outbreak of the country’s civil war in 2011.

Last month, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman said that Qatar’s boycott of the Syrian regime remains in place.

Al-Assad is expected to attend the upcoming Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19.

In recent months, the Syrian regime has begun to exchange official visits and contacts with several Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara