Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of regional foreign ministers this week to discuss Syria’s return to the Arab League, a Qatari official said. Qatar has opposed Syria’s return to the Arab League, but according to foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari, an “Arab consensus” plus a “change on the ground” would shift Qatar’s position, Reuters reported on 12 April.
The meeting, which will involve the foreign ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait, will take place this Friday in the Saudi city of Jeddah on the Red Sea.
“The main aim is to discuss the situation in Syria. There are many developments regarding the situation in Syria and points of view of Arab states about the return of Syria to the Arab League,” Qatar’s al-Ansari said in a briefing to local media.
The meeting comes weeks ahead of the Arab League summit in Riyadh scheduled for 19 May. Reuters previously reported that Saudi Arabia has invited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend the summit, despite Qatari objections.
However, Qatar may be forced to change its policy if others in the Arab League also approve of Syria’s return.
“Any change in the current (Qatari) position on Syria is mainly linked to an Arab consensus and a change on the ground that achieves the aspirations of the Syrian people,” al-Ansari said.
Assad’s attendance at the Arab League summit in May would mark the most significant development in the recent foreign policy shift of the US’ traditional Arab allies.
Under US direction, numerous Arab states sponsored an Al-Qaeda-dominated Salafist insurgency in Syria that began in 2011. Qatar, which was home to the headquarters of US military operations throughout West Asia, played an outsize role.
Then Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani acknowledgedthat a security committee was established with representatives from the US, Saudi, Qatar, Turkey, and Jordan to coordinate the insurgency. Al-Thani notes that Qatar was in charge of this file in the early months of the conflict. Management of the file included support for the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in a war that killed hundreds of thousands.
Obscuring their own covert roles in the conflict, Qatar and other Arab states portrayed the Syrian government as cracking down on peaceful protestors and demanded Damascus be expelled from the Arab League.