Top Arab diplomats visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Monday, the latest in a string of diplomatic overtures by the international community as Syria emerges from years of isolation under President Bashar al-Assad.
The visits by ministers from Jordan and Qatar, just two weeks after Mr. al-Assad’s fall, suggest that Arab nations are eager for better relations with a country that had been a pariah and a source of instability in the region.
Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, held “extensive talks” with Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, in Damascus on Monday, according to a statement from the Jordanian foreign ministry. Hours later, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, arrived in Syria and met with its new leadership, according to the Qatari foreign ministry.
They were among the first high-ranking Arab diplomats to visit Syria since Mr. al-Assad was toppled two weeks ago by the rebel coalition led by Mr. al-Shara. Top Arab diplomats vowed at a meeting in Jordan this month to “support a peaceful transition process” in Syria.
Most Arab nations cut ties with Mr. al-Assad’s government because of his ruthless crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 during the Arab Spring, which ignited a civil war. But after years of financing anti-Assad militias, several of Mr. al-Assad’s detractors had reversed their stance in recent years, hoping that increased engagement might bring more stability to the region.
Last year, the Saudi government in Riyadh invited Mr. al-Assad to the Arab League summit, more than a decade after the league suspended Syria’s membership. But the strategy didn’t pay off, said Julien Barnes-Dacey, Middle East and North Africa program director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. And Mr. al-Assad continued with his heavy-handed tactics. Now, Arab nations are jumping at the chance to start again with new leadership in Syria.
“The Arab states see more opportunity now than they did after a year of engagement with Assad that delivered absolutely nothing,” Mr. Barnes-Dacey said.
Initially there was trepidation given Mr. al-Shara’s former links to Al Qaeda, which is as much a destabilizing factor in the Arab world as it is in the West, Mr. Barnes-Dacey said. But Mr. al-Shara’s repeated pronouncements that his government would be pragmatic, inclusive and respectful of the country’s many religious and ethnic groups have been well received.
“Regional states are going to be happy to jump on that,” he said.
The influx of Arab delegations reflects the potential for a profound shift in regional alliances, said Paul Salem, vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute in Washington. Even though like most Arab nations, Syria is a majority Sunni Muslim country, the Assad regime long played a key role in supporting the regional influence of Iran, which is largely Shiite. Arab states see an opportunity to change that dynamic.
“Arab countries have been trying to get Syria back into the Arab fold for the last 45 years, since the Iran-Iraq War,” said Mr. Salem. It is not surprising, he added, that Qatar is taking the lead.
Qatar was one of the few Arab countries that refused to reconcile with Mr. al-Assad, so the visit by Mr. Al-Khulaifi, one of the country’s top-ranking diplomats, was a strong signal of support for the new government. In a news conference after their meeting, Mr. Al-Khulaifi said that “Syria and its people need support during this crucial phase.”
Mr. al-Shara highlighted Qatar’s continued assistance for the Syrian people throughout the war, and thanked Qatar for what he described as its readiness to invest in Syria’s energy sector, ports and airports.
The Qatari delegation was accompanied by a technical team from Qatar Airways that planned to assess whether the international airport in Damascus was ready to restart operations after it was shut down amid the rebel offensive, according to the foreign ministry.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Mr. Safadi, said in remarks after his meeting with Mr. al-Shara that his country’s goal was to “support and assist the Syrian people.” But he also brought up issues of direct concern to Jordan, including the presence of nearly 620,000 registered Syrian refugees in his country, emphasizing that their return must be “voluntary and safe.” Mr. Safadi also brought up issues of terrorism, arms smuggling and drug trafficking, “which we in Jordan have suffered from.”
The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, spoke with Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, Syria’s newly appointed foreign minister. In the call, Mr. bin Zayed stressed his country’s “supportive stance” for a “comprehensive and inclusive transitional phase.” The UAE has long been suspicious of the rebel movement’s Islamist bent, said Mr. Barnes-Dacey, and was the first among Arab nations to re-establish ties with the Assad government, in 2018.
For his meetings with both the Jordanian and Qatari delegations on Monday, Mr. Al-Shara donned a suit and tie rather than his typical military fatigues, part of the new leader’s effort to polish his image and mend ties between Syria and the international community.
On Sunday Mr. Al-Shara met with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, and also met a prominent Lebanese Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt. Like his visitors on Monday, the Turkish and Lebanese representatives had their laundry list of needs, couched in offers of support.
Turkey, host to 3.6 million Syrian refugees, also wants to see a return to stability so that they can eventually go home. But it is also seeking to build a Syria more closely aligned with its regional interests. Many of the rebel groups that helped push Mr. al-Assad out of power were financed by Turkey, and while Mr. al-Shara’s group was not, Turkey will still seek to use their presence to push for greater influence, Mr. Barnes-Dacey said.
As a Lebanese politician as well as the leader of the Druze religious minority, which has about a million members scattered across Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan, Mr. Jumblatt wasn’t seeking influence as much as reassurances.
The Assad regime, which was founded by Mr. al-Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad in 1971, had a long history of interfering in Lebanese politics, and it was implicated in the assassination of Mr. Jumblatt’s father, as well as the killings of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and several other prominent Lebanese politicians over the past 50 years.
In his meeting with the Lebanese delegation, Mr. al-Shara acknowledged that Syria under the Assads had long been a “source of fear and anxiety” for Lebanon, and he vowed to end his country’s “negative interference.”
A delegation from Saudi Arabia also visited Damascus on Sunday, according to Saudi news media. There are likely to be more visitors in the coming days and weeks, said Mr. Barnes-Dacey, as regional neighbors seek to shape Syria’s post-Assad evolution.
But Syria will need those countries to provide real resources if it is to avoid a relapse into conflict, he said: “The immense economic and reconstruction pressures are key issues on the table when it comes to navigating Syria’s political challenges, so let’s see the degree to which these states are really willing to put in resources and political capital.”
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