Arab League re-admits Syrian govt after 11-year absence
AFP | Cairo
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
The Arab League on Sunday welcomed back Syria's government, which had been shunned since 2011 over President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy protests that started the civil war.
"Government delegations from the Syrian Arab Republic will resume their participation in Arab League meetings," said a unanimous decision by the group's foreign ministers.
In November 2011, the 22-member body suspended Damascus over its bloody crackdown on peaceful protests which began earlier that year and which spiralled into a civil conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry.
While the front lines have mostly quietened, large parts of the country's north remain outside government control, and no political solution has yet been reached to the 12-year-old conflict.
Assad has been politically isolated since the Syrian conflict began, but recent weeks have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of an Arab League summit in the Saudi city of Jeddah on May 19.
The last Arab League summit Assad attended was in 2010.
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