Further to that "genocide summit" last week, when Bashir met Bashar, it seems that the Arab League are now preparing to readmit Syria into the fold, some eight years after kicking Damascus out over its brutal repressions. Perhaps the hypocrisy of pretending to care about mass murder became too obvious for an organisation one of whose leading lights is wanted for crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court. Or, more likely, the Arab League want to prise Damascus away from Tehran. Syria, as Assad knows only too well, is strategically central to the whole region:
At some point in the next year it is likely Assad will be welcomed on to a stage to once again take his place among the Arab world’s leaders, sources say. Shoulder to shoulder with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and Egypt’s latest autocrat, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the moment will mark the definitive death of the Arab spring, the hopes of the region’s popular revolutions crushed by the newest generation of Middle Eastern strongmen....
Earlier in December, the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, became the first Arab League leader to visit Syria in eight years, a visit widely interpreted as a gesture of friendship on behalf of Saudi Arabia, which has shored up ties with Khartoum in recent years. Pro-government media outlets posted pictures of the two leaders shaking hands and grasping each other’s arms on a red carpet leading from the Russian jet that ferried Bashir to Damascus along with the hashtag “More are yet to come”.
Diplomatic sources have told the Guardian there is a growing consensus among the league’s 22 members that Syria should be readmitted to the alliance of Arab nations, although the US is pressuring both Riyadh and Cairo to hold off on demanding a vote from members.
The move comes despite Assad’s intimate ties to Iran, to whom the regime owes its survival. For Saudi Arabia and the UAE, re-embracing Syria is a new strategy aimed at pivoting Assad away from Tehran’s sphere of influence, fuelled by the promise of normalised trade relations and reconstruction money.
So we now live in a world where mass slaughter and crimes against humanity are no barrier to political success.
Comments