Algeria will try to find a consensus about the return of Syria to the League in the upcoming meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, according to Asharq al-Awsat.
Algeria, as the host country of the next Arab League summit, still insists on Damascus’s invitation, an official of the Algerian Foreign Ministry has said.
In press statements, Abdelhamid Abdaoui, Director General of Communication and Information at the Algerian Foreign Ministry, said Sunday that his country “will again put forward for debate Syria’s invitation to participate in the upcoming Arab summit, during a meeting of arab foreign ministers” scheduled for next September in Cairo.
But Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, said in televised statements that “there is no specific time that can be announced for Syria’s return to the Arab League. While it is not a distant matter, it is not close either, as the matter has not yet been decided, and a time frame cannot be set for it.”
In turn, Counselor Jamal Rushdi, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the General Secretariat is following up on the issue of Syria’s attendance at the next summit, “which requires Arab consensus.” He pointed out that “a consensus has not been achieved in the required manner. Some countries welcome their return, and other parties have moved their positions a little. But full compatibility has yet to occur.”
The consensus dilemma regarding Syria’s return to the Arab League is one of the most important current contentious issues. As Dr. Muhammad Ezz Al-Arab, head of the Arab and Regional Studies Unit at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, explains, “there have continuous consultations in this context, but the consensus is still elusive between countries that support its return and countries that reject it.”