ALGEIRS (Anadolu) – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has hinted at the possibility of Syria’s return to the Arab League during the next Arab summit in March, Anadolu Agency reports.
“Syria is supposed to be present,” Tebboune told the state television when asked if the next Arab summit in Algeria will see Syria’s return to the Arab League.
He explained that the summit needs to be inclusive and the Arab world unified.
“When we organize an Arab summit, we want it to be inclusive and a launchpad for the reunification of the fractured Arab world,” Tebboune said. “We are a country that always knits the splintered.”
The majority of the Arab League’s member-states voted on November 12, 2011, to suspend Syria’s membership after the foreign-backed war broke out in the country.
Since July, Arab normalization with the Syrian government has accelerated, especially by Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt, represented by mutual meetings, agreements, and economic understandings.
On November 9, the foreign minister of the UAE met with President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital Damascus, in the first high-level visit from the Persian Gulf country since the outbreak of the war.
The next Arab League summit in Algeria in March is expected to discuss restoring Syria’s membership.
In a related context, Tebboune said the upcoming Algeria summit “will witness a re-submission of the reform file of the Arab League”. He, however, did not provide any further details about the nature of these reforms.
He pointed out that “several international organizations such as the United Nations and regional organizations such as the African Union have been reformed internally, with the exception of the Arab League, which has remained unchanged since its establishment.”