Cairo, May 7 (EFE).- Arab foreign ministers have agreed to bring Syria back to the Arab League, ending the war-ravaged country’s years-long diplomatic isolation, Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahhaf confirmed on Sunday.
“The meeting of Arab foreign ministers agreed on the return of Syria to its seat in the Arab League,” al-Sahhaf was quoted as saying by the official Iraqi news agency INA.
Egyptian foreign ministry Sameh Shoukry, who opened Sunday’s session in Cairo, said: “We have a historic responsibility to stand by the Syrian people to help them turn the sad page of their history.”
“The Syrian government is responsible to reach a political solution,” he added, saying the “military solution is not real.”
The Arab League has not issued a final statement on the breakthrough yet.
Among the conditions set for Syria’s readmission are the return of refugees and informing on the whereabouts of disappeared and missing people.
Syria was expelled from the 22-member organization in 2011 over the Syrian government’s crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising that soon evolved into a civil war.
Several nations in the Middle East and North Africa severed ties with Syria in the wake of the conflict.
However, a number of countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, have taken steps toward an apparent rapprochement with the Syrian government since devastating earthquakes rocked large areas of northern Syria and southern Turkey in February.
The Arab reconciliation with Syria, promoted mainly by Saudi Arabia, came after the regional heavyweight normalized ties with archrival Iran in March. EFE
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