In March next year, Algeria will host the regular Arab Summit meeting with the most important item on the agenda being the readmission of Syria to the Arab League.
The Syrian membership in the League was suspended at the Arab Summit in Doha in 2012. This hasty decision on the part of Arab governments at the height of what is commonly referred to as the “Arab Spring” has not served Arab interests. To make matters worse, the Doha Summit also decided, against the league Charter, to let the “Syrian opposition” take the seat of the Syrian government at league meetings.
The Arab world was in the midst of a violent tide of regime changes in many Arab republics at the time. Historically and strategically, Syria, regardless of the different rulers and governments in place in Damascus, has always been a major force in Arab politics and in defending Arab national interests.
Between 2012 and 2015, Syria became a prize that competing international, regional and some Arab monarchies fought to possess. For the powers that supported the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and those that opposed it, Syria was a battlefield of competing and diametrically opposed strategic interests.
The three regional powers that have always tried to weaken Syria, namely Israel, Turkey and Iran, have all benefited from the struggle for Syria. As for the Israelis, and under the elusive principle of self-defence, they turned Syria into an indirect theatre of war with the Iranians and pro-Iranian Arab militias that had come in the hundreds of thousands to protect the Syrian government.
For the Americans and the Russians, Syria became once again a land of confrontation and a way of entrenching their presence in the Middle East. These two powers have stuck to the line that they are fighting terrorism and terrorist groups. Meanwhile, some Gulf monarchies, wanting to justify their blatant interference in Syria, have defended such ill-considered policies in the name of democracy and human rights.
From 2012 to 2017, the briefly united Syrian opposition mushroomed into various political groupings, each with its own allegiance either to a foreign or regional power. Today, there is no dependable Syrian opposition that can effectively cooperate with the government in Damascus and the international community to carry out UN Security Council Resolution 2254 of December 2015.
The struggle for Syria by the use of force, regardless of the declared political and ideological justifications, has been the hallmark of the last decade, but today it is coming to an end. A repositioning of the concerned parties has been seen over the last year, particularly by most of the Arab countries: the UAE and Jordan took the first steps in this when the Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus and sent its foreign minister to meet president Al Assad earlier this year. King Abdullah of Jordan also talked by telephone with president Al Assad. The director of the Saudi intelligence services met his Syrian counterpart last month in Cairo on the margins of a meeting hosted by Egypt of the directors of various Arab intelligence services.
A weakened Syria has not helped any Arab cause or interest. On the contrary, it has led to the further destabilisation of the balance of power between the Arab countries and the three regional powers of Israel, Turkey and Iran. The intensification of the Saudi-Iranian confrontation is just one example in this respect.
Bringing Syria back into the Arab fold will be a turning point in the Middle East that will contribute to a new alignment of Arab forces vis-à-vis the three above-mentioned regional powers. It will open a new chapter in the history of the region in the era of the “Abraham Accords” between some Arab countries and Israel.