MANAMA (Al Jazeera) – Bahrain has appointed its first ambassador to Damascus since it downgraded ties early in the conflict in Syria.
The appointment of Waheed Mubarak Sayyar, reported on Thursday by Bahrain’s state news agency BNA, is part of a diplomatic shift in the Middle East as a growing number of Arab countries revive ties with President Bashar al-Assad.
Persian Gulf states downgraded or shut their missions in Damascus after the foreign-backed war broke out in Syria.
Bahrain has said its embassy, and the Syrian diplomatic mission in Manama, have remained operational.
Last month, the United Arab Emirates, which reopened its mission to Damascus in late 2018, sent its foreign minister to Damascus where he met Assad. It has called for Syria to be readmitted to the Arab League.
Abu Dhabi began to re-engage with Damascus after the Syrian army won a series of key military victories with the help of Russia and Iran.
The UAE was one of several regional states to back militant groups in Syria, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have not re-established ties with Damascus.
Oman last year became the first Persian Gulf state to reinstate an ambassador to Syria.
Last week, the speaker of the Jordanian House of Representatives, Abdul Karim al-Daghmi, called for Syria to be fully reinstated to the Arab League when Algeria hosts the next Arab summit in March.
“We, as the Arab Parliament, must put pressure on our governments and ask our leaders to green-light Syria’s return to the Arab League when the next summit convenes in Algeria, and to allow its delegation to participate in the Arab Parliament sessions as well,” Daghmi said in a press conference on the sidelines of a session of the Arab Parliament in Amman on December 23.
He noted, “It is now high time for Syria to return to its Arab origins and rejoin the Arab League.”
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has also called for restoration of Syria’s membership in the Arab League, stating that Arab nations would not be able to reunify and resolve their differences in case Damascus is excluded from the regional organization.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Tunisian counterpart, Kais Saied, in Tunis on December 15, Tebboune said Syria should rejoin the Arab League in order for Arabs to unify again, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.