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A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 14 January 2019
Arab nations inch toward rehabilitating Syria's Assad

By ZEINA KARAM a Russian jet, becoming the
Associated Press first Arab leader to visit Syr-
BEIRUT (AP) — He has sur- ia since 2011. The visit was
vived eight years of war and largely seen as a precur-
billions of dollars in money sor for similar steps by other
and weapons aimed at Arab leaders.
toppling him. Now Syrian On Dec. 27, the United
President Bashar Assad is Arab Emirates reopened
poised to be readmitted its embassy in Damascus
to the fold of Arab na- with a public ceremony, in
tions, a feat once deemed the most significant Arab
unthinkable as he force- overture yet toward the
fully crushed the uprising Assad government, almost
against his family's rule. certainly coordinated with
Gulf Arab nations, once the Saudi Arabia. The Bahrain
main backers of rebels try- Embassy followed the next
ing to oust Assad, are lining day.
up to reopen their embas- The debate now appears to
sies in Syria, worried about be about when, not wheth-
leaving the country at the er, to re-admit Syria to the
heart of the Arab world Arab League. At a meeting
to regional rivals Iran and in Cairo on Wednesday,
Turkey and missing out on Egyptian Foreign Minister
lucrative post-war recon- Sameh Shukri said Syria's
structive projects. Key bor- In this March 11, 2009 file photo, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, right, welcomes Syrian President return to the League is con-
der crossings with neigh- Bashar Assad upon his arrival to attend the Arab Summit, in the Saudi capital Riyadh. nected to developments
bors, shuttered for years by Associated Press on the political track to end
the war, have reopened, the crisis.
and Arab commercial air- primed to retake the area It can seem like a mind- ance against Iran while Iraqi Foreign Minister Mo-
lines are reportedly con- they abandoned in 2012 at boggling reversal for a avoiding escalation with hamed Alhakim, speaking
sidering resuming flights to the height of the war. This leader whose military once Iran itself." in Baghdad at a joint press
Damascus. would be a significant step seemed dangerously close After Assad led a crack- conference with his Iranian
And as President Donald toward restoring Assad's to collapse. But Russia's down on protesters in 2011, counterpart, said Sunday
Trump plans to pull out control over all of Syria, military intervention, which Syria was cast out as a pa- that his country supports ef-
America's 2,000 soldiers leaving only the northwest began in 2015, steadily re- riah by much of the Arab forts to restore Syria's mem-
from northeastern Syria, in the hands of rebels, most versed Assad's losses, al- and Western world. It lost bership in the Arab League.
government troops are of them jihadis. lowing his troops, aided by its seat at the Arab League In Lebanon, some officials
Iranian-backed fighters, to and was hit by crippling insist Syria should be invit-
recapture cities like Homs sanctions by the interna- ed to an Arab economic
and Aleppo, key to his rule. tional community, as the summit the country is host-
Assad rules over a country U.S. and European diplo- ing next week, although
in ruins, with close to half mats closed their diplomat- final decision rests with the
a million people killed and ic missions. League.
half the population dis- But Syria's isolation was nev- "It could happen slower or
placed. Major fighting may er complete. China, Russia, faster, but if Assad is going
still lie ahead. But many see Brazil, India and South Af- to stay where he is, then
the war nearing its end, rica maintained diplomat- obviously countries in the
and the 53-year-old leader ic ties. In the Arab world, region are going to try to
is sitting more comfortably Lebanon, Iraq and Alge- make the best of that situ-
than he has in the past ria never broke ranks with ation," said Aron Lund, a
eight years. Syria. Propped up by Rus- fellow with The Century
"Rehabilitation by Arab sia, China and Iran, Assad Foundation. "American
states is inevitable," said never really felt the pinch politicians can sit in splen-
Faysal Itani, a resident se- politically. did isolation on the other
nior fellow with the Atlantic A Saudi attempt to patch side of an ocean and pre-
Council's Rafik Hariri Center up relations with Assad tend Syria isn't what it is," he
for the Middle East. would be a public ac- said. "But King Abdullah of
A key motive for Sunni Mus- knowledgement of the Jordan can't."
lim Gulf countries is to blunt kingdom's failure to oust The Arab overtures come
the involvement of their Shi- him. At the same time, the amid a shifting landscape
ite-led foe, Iran, which saw involvement of Gulf Arab in the Western world.
its influence expand rapidly governments and private The planned U.S. pullout
in the chaos of Syria's war. companies is crucial for from Syria is part of Trump's
"Saudi Arabia tried briefly to any serious reconstruction "America First" policy. He
help overthrow him when effort in Syria. Reconstruc- has repeatedly said he was
he seemed most vulner- tion costs are estimated not interested in remov-
able using proxy militants," between $200 and $350 bil- ing Assad from power or
Itani said. "With his regime lion. keeping American troops
likely to survive, however, Last month, Sudanese Presi- involved in "endless wars"
Saudi Arabia would prefer dent Omar al-Bashir, him- in the region, most recently
to try and exercise influ- self an international out- describing Syria as "sand
ence over Assad to bal- cast, flew to Damascus on and death."q