The emergency meeting comes about two weeks before the date of the Arab summit scheduled for May 19 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Egypt presides over the meetings of the Arab League as the current session of its council.
Representatives of the League of Arab States met in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Saturday, in the presence of members from Sudan and Syria. The emergency meeting was called to discuss the fighting in Sudan and the possibility of Syria returning to the League.
The emergency meeting comes about two weeks before the date of the Arab summit scheduled for May 19 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Egypt presides over the meetings of the Arab League as the current session of its council.
The Arab countries are taking diplomatic moves to include Syria in the next summit after suspending its membership, which requires steps at the level of the League Council before voting to lift the suspension of the Damascus seat. The meeting will discuss the results of the mini-Arab ministerial meetings held in Saudi Arabia and Jordan to discuss Syria’s return to the League and invite to the next Riyadh summit. Diplomatic sources indicated that there was widespread support for Syria’s return to the Arab League.
Syria was suspended from the 22-nation Arab League in the first months of the civil war 12 years ago, and Arab countries subsequently imposed economic sanctions.
The conflict in Syria since March 2011 has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Some members, particularly Qatar, opposed Damascus returning to the organization.
The Arab foreign ministers also dealt with the crisis that Sudan is going through, as the participants seek to take a unified Arab position on this crisis, especially since the meeting is the first of its kind at the level of foreign ministers regarding the situation in this country by finding a role in resolving the Sudanese crisis. Participants stressed the importance of maintaining the truce declared in Khartoum between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
