Damascus, May 18, (dpa/GNA) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived Thursday in the Saudi port city of Jeddah ahead of the 32nd Arab League Summit, according to state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA).
The summit is scheduled to start on Friday, with Syria taking part for the first time in over a decade following its suspension in the wake of the country’s civil war.
On May 7, Arab foreign ministers adopted a decision to readmit Syria to the Arab League.
Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011 over the Syrian government’s use of excessive military force to quell a pro-democracy uprising that evolved into a civil war.
The country’s readmission came ahead of the pan-Arab summit, which Saudi Arabia, a regional heavyweight, will host on Friday.
The Arab rapprochement with the Syrian government comes as Saudi Arabia, which previously supported the Syrian rebels, and Iran, one of al-Assad’s main allies, agreed to restore ties in March.
Oil-wealthy Saudi Arabia cut ties with Syria in 2012, after the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on the uprising.
GNA