DAMASCUS: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz has invited Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to attend an Arab League summit in the Gulf country on May 19, Syrian state media reported on Wednesday.

Arab foreign ministers had on Sunday agreed that Syria could resume its role in the body, 12 years after its membership was suspended over Assad’s crackdown on protests against him.

Assad said the summit “will enhance joint Arab action to achieve the aspirations of the Arab peoples,” it said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar al-Sudairi, delivered the invitation, according to Saudi state news agency SPA.

Russia says roadmap in the works to mend Syria-Turkiye ties

He conveyed the King and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “wishes to the brotherly government and people of Syria for security and stability,” SPA said.

The invitation comes a day after Riyadh and Damascus announced that work would resume at their respective diplomatic missions in Syria and Saudi Arabia, after more than a decade of severed relations.

‘Roadmap’

Russia said that a roadmap to normalise ties between Syria and Turkiye will be drafted following a meeting of their foreign ministers in Moscow.

Earlier on Wednesday the foreign ministers of Turkiye and Syria held their first official meeting since the start of the Syrian civil war.

The talks in the Russian capital also involved the top diplomats of Russia and Iran.

The ministers had agreed to task their deputies with putting together a “‘roadmap’ to advance ties between Turkiye and Syria” in coordination with the defence ministers and security services of the four countries, Moscow said in a statement.

“The ministers noted the positive and constructive atmosphere of the exchange of views and agreed to continue high-level contacts,” the Russian foreign ministry added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the proposals could then be put to the leaders of Iran, Russia, Syria and Turkiye.

“Our task is to determine the general guidelines for further progress,” Lavrov said at the meeting.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran welcomed the start of the talks between Syria and Turkiye.

“We deeply believe that these two countries can put the past behind them and by looking to the future resolve their bilateral issues through dialogue and deepening cooperation based on good neighbourliness,” he said.

He pointed to “the transition process in the world order” and “the decline of American power”.

In April, Moscow also hosted four-way talks involving the countries’ defence ministers.

Turkiye supported early rebel efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, keeping a military presence in northern stretches of the war-torn country that angers Damascus.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made up with former rivals across the region and is now courting a presidential summit with Assad.

Kremlin mediation would give President Vladimir Putin diplomatic clout with Russia isolated internationally over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

Damascus is a staunch ally of Moscow, which intervened in the civil war in 2015, launching air strikes to support the government’s struggling forces.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2023