In addition to Al-Miqdad, the meeting will include the foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, to discuss a Jordanian plan to achieve a political settlement to the conflict, according to a statement by the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Jordanian officials announced that Amman will host today, Monday, a meeting of Arab foreign ministers with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad to discuss Damascus’ return to the Arab League, as part of a broader political settlement to the more than ten-year-old war in Syria.
In addition to Al-Miqdad, the meeting will include the foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, to discuss a Jordanian plan to achieve a political settlement to the conflict, according to a statement by the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The statement quoted the official spokesman for the ministry, Sinan al-Majali, as saying, “The meeting comes as a continuation of the consultative meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, which was hosted by Saudi Arabia” in mid-April.
He added that it also comes “to build on the contacts made by these countries with the Syrian government and in the context of its proposals, and a Jordanian initiative to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis.”
The first meeting of its kind
The meeting comes after two weeks of talks that took place in the Saudi city of Jeddah between the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, but they did not reach an agreement on Syria’s possible return to the Arab League.
This is the first meeting of its kind between a senior Syrian official and his counterparts in a number of Arab countries, most of which supported the suspension of Syria’s membership in the League in 2011 after the crackdown on protesters who denounced the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, which led to the outbreak of a devastating war.
The Arab countries and the countries most affected by this conflict are seeking to reach a consensus on whether to invite Assad to attend the Arab League summit on May 19 in Riyadh to discuss the pace of normalization of relations with Assad and the conditions for allowing Syria to return to the League.
The Jordanian plan includes addressing the issue of refugees, the fate of thousands of missing detainees, drug smuggling between Syria and the Gulf, and the presence of armed Iranian factions in Syria.
Saudi Arabia has resisted normalizing relations with Assad, but after its rapprochement with Iran, Syria’s regional ally, said there was a need for a new approach with Damascus, which is under Western sanctions.
The proposal to invite Assad to attend the Arab League summit met with objections during the Jeddah meeting, as Qatar, Jordan and Kuwait said it was premature and that Damascus must first accept negotiation on a peace plan.
