By Aziz El Yaakoubi
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in Saudi Arabia on Friday to attend an Arab summit where he will rub shoulders with leaders who shunned him for years in a major policy shift opposed by the United States and other Western powers.
Ostracised by most Arab states following the crackdown on protests against his rule in 2011 and the ensuing civil war that killed 350,000 people, his government’s readmission to the bloc is a signal that Assad’s isolation is ending.
A beaming Assad was received by Deputy Governor of Mecca region Prince Badr bin Sultan and Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit as he arrived on Thursday in Jeddah, the host city.
Assad, accompanied by several other Syrian officials, was then escorted to the reception hall of the Royal terminal where he had a brief exchange with Prince Badr and Aboul Gheit. Giant portraits of Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdulaziz, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were hanging on the walls.
Assad is expected to address the summit later on Friday, along with other Arab leaders.
Ahead of the summit, the United States reiterated its opposition to normalisation of relations with Damascus.
“We do not believe that Syria should be (afforded) re-entry into the Arab League,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington, adding sanctions should not be lifted.
“As it related to normalization, we don’t support normalization with the Assad regime, and we don’t support our partners doing so.”
But Patel added that “we have a number of shared objectives” such as bringing home Austin Tice, a former U.S. Marine and journalist who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill last week intended to bar U.S. recognition of Assad as Syria’s president and enhance Washington’s ability to impose sanctions.
It marks a remarkable turn of fortunes for the Syrian leader, who then U.S. President Donald Trump branded an “animal” for using chemical weapons in 2018 – an accusation he consistently denied.
Government forces have used chemical weapons more than two dozen times during Syria’s civil war, U.N. war crimes investigators said. Syria has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.
Assad’s return to the Arab fold is part of a wider trend in the Middle East where adversaries have been taking steps to mend ties strained by years of conflict and rivalry.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others for years supported anti-Assad rebels. But Syria’s army, backed by Russia and Iran, regained control of most of the country years ago.
While Arab countries appear to have brought Assad in from the cold, they are still demanding that he curbs Syria’s flourishing drugs trade and that war refugees be allowed to return.
(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
