Saudi Arabia plans to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to an Arab League summit hosted by Riyadh in May, three sources familiar with the plans said, in a move that would formally end the Syrian leader’s regional isolation.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan will travel to Damascus in the coming weeks to extend an official invitation to Assad to attend the May 19 summit, two sources said.
Gamal Roshdi, spokesman for the secretary general of the Arab League, said that the organization is not aware of every move at the bilateral level among Arab countries.
Assad’s attendance at the Arab League summit would mark the biggest advance in his rehabilitation in the Arab world since 2011, when Syria was suspended from the organization.
Assad was boycotted by many Western and Arab countries due to the suppression of protests, that is, the violence that led to a long civil war.
SRNA