Syrian President Bashar Assad will travel to the Saudi city of Jeddah on Thursday to attend the Arab League summit the following day, the Syrian presidency said in a statement. Saudi Arabia invited Assad to attend the summit after Arab states agreed to reinstate Syria's full membership into the league, following 12 years of suspension over his crackdown on protests against him.
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Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit welcomed Syria back into the bloc on Wednesday, as Arab foreign ministers gathered for a preparatory meeting ahead of the full summit. Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad has held talks with his Jordanian, Emirati, and Lebanese counterparts among others. Lebanon's foreign minister Abdullah Bou Habib said he had spoken to Mekdad about the return of refugees and curbing drug smuggling in the region, two issues that have been key to Arab countries' negotiations with Syria in recent months. It would have been unthinkable earlier in the conflict when Gulf Arab states swung behind rebels battling to oust Assad, and then US President Donald Trump branded him an "animal" for using chemical weapons - an accusation he routinely denied.
His presence at an Arab summit in Jeddah on Friday hosted by Saudi Arabia appears to seal his rehabilitation in the region - a diplomatic triumph alongside the military victory he proclaimed years ago, though much of Syria is outside his grasp.
