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Syria's return to Arab League not on summit agenda: spokesman

The Arab League said Sunday it was not planning to discuss reinstating Syria's membership at a summit later this month, more than eight years after suspending it as the country descended into war. The pan-Arab bloc, which is set to hold its annual summit in Tunisia on March 31, froze Syria's membership in November 2011 over a bloody government crackdown on protestors.

Agencies and A News WORLD
Published March 24,2019
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Syria's membership in the Arab League is not on the agenda of this month's annual Arab summit, the pan-Arab body confirmed on Sunday.

Arab leaders are scheduled to meet in Tunisia on March 31 for their annual summit.

"Syria's return to the Arab League has not officially been discussed during the league's meetings," Mahmoud Afifi, a spokesman for the Cairo-based league, said in statements cited by Egypt's official MENA news agency.

"The issue of Syria's return to the Arab League has yet to be listed on the agenda and has not been formally proposed," said the League's spokesman Mahmoud Afifi.

He noted that the "Syrian crisis" however still tops the agenda, along with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the situation in Yemen and Libya.

Syria's membership in the Arab League has been suspended since 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime launched a harsh crackdown on pro-democracy protests, sparking eight years of civil war.

But several of the bloc's other 21 members have recently renewed ties with the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and some have called for Syria to be re-admitted to the league.

Last month, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abul Gheit said there was no consensus among member states on Syria's return to the pan-Arab body.

Syria's conflict flared in 2011 with anti-government demonstrations that sparked a brutal regime crackdown.

It has since drawn in regional powers, killing 370,000 people and displacing millions.

But the regime, backed by allies Russia and Iran, has since re-conquered much of the territory it had lost to rebels and Daesh, and now controls some two-thirds of the country.

Earlier this month, Syrian officials attended a meeting of Arab states in neighbouring Jordan for the first time since the country's Arab League membership was suspended.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in December made the first visit of any Arab leader to the Syrian capital since 2011.

The same month, Egypt hosted Syria's national security chief and top Assad aide Ali Mamluk.

The UAE also reopened its Damascus embassy in a major sign of a diplomatic thaw.

Arab states have also slammed US President Donald Trump's call for recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic territory the Jewish state seized from Syria in 1967.