{"id":11340,"date":"2023-08-27T11:56:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T11:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/2023\/08\/mba-4\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T21:05:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T18:05:47","slug":"syrias-return-to-the-arab-league-meliha-benli-altunisik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/2023\/08\/syrias-return-to-the-arab-league-meliha-benli-altunisik\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria’s Return to the Arab League – Meliha Benli Altun\u0131\u015f\u0131k"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Arab League announced on May 7 that it ended its decision to suspend\nSyria\u2019s membership 12 years ago over the violent suppression of the revolts\nthat began in the Arab Spring process. Following this, Syrian President Bashar\nal-Assad attended the Arab League Summit held in Saudi Arabia on May 19 and was\nwelcomed very warmly by the host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syria has long been expected to return to the Arab League. In recent\nyears, several Arab countries have begun to normalize their relations with the\nAssad regime. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the first to do so. In\nDecember 2018, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus. After that, the UAE continued\nto develop its relations with Syria using both the pandemic period and the\nearthquake diplomacy as an opportunity. But the US Caesar sanctions prevented\nthe UAE from fully improving its economic ties with Syria to the extent it\nwanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, in recent years, many Arab countries have declared that\nthey want to normalize relations with Syria. Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia,\nJordan, and lastly, Saudi Arabia have also begun to send positive signals on\nthe matter, and some have re-established diplomatic relations with Damascus. In\nthis context, especially Saudi Arabia\u2019s change of attitude opened the way for\nSyria to return to the Arab League. In the meantime, Qatar continued to resist.\nBut in the final analysis, Qatar did not veto the decision and preferred not to\nundermine the consensus between the Arab countries. Apparently, after resolving\nthe so-called Qatar crisis in 2020, Doha did not want a new crisis that would\nnegatively affect its improved relations with Saudi Arabia. Still, Qatar’s Sheikh\nTamim bin Hamad al-Thani left the summit when Assad started to speak,\nexpressing his unhappiness, albeit symbolically. Kuwait and Morocco are also\nthe two other Arab countries that keep their distance from normalization with\nSyria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this decision of Syria\u2019s return to the Arab League mean? First,\nSyrian President Assad is trying to present this decision to his country and\nregional and extra-regional audiences as a mark of victory. Yet, after a crisis\nand a war lasting more than 12 years, Syria is a country where more than\n500,000 Syrians lost their lives, and half of the country\u2019s population has become\nrefugees or internally displaced. In addition, the country\u2019s infrastructure is\nlargely destroyed, and the population is facing a severe humanitarian crisis. While\nAssad seems to have taken control of much of the country, there are areas\noutside his authority in the north and northeast. Turkey controls some of these\nareas along with some opposition forces and some by the US along with the PYD.\nFurthermore, the influence and control of Iran, Hezbollah and Russia continue\nin areas under Assad’s control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did the Arab League then take such a decision? First of all, each\ncountry has different concerns and interests. For instance, Lebanon and Jordan\nwant normalization of relations with Syria and stability in that country, both\nfor their own security concerns and to be able to send more Syrian refugees back.\nMany Arab countries are also concerned that Syria is becoming a\n“narco-state”. Syria has become a center of drug trafficking during\nthis period, affecting its neighbors. In fact, many countries, including Saudi\nArabia, have raised this issue at the summit. Obviously, they want to have an\nimpact on this issue by developing relationships with Assad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if we go beyond these specific reasons and look at the broad\npicture, the return of Syria to the Arab League can be seen as part of a new\nregional order that has been forming for a while. The general trends that shape\nthis regional order are the decrease in US influence in the region and the attempts\nto create a Gulf-centric regional order. There are challenges from this attempt\nwithin the Gulf, as demonstrated by the competition between Saudi Arabia and\nthe UAE for their roles. But the general framework still remains the same. The\nmost important indicator of this new order is the steps of normalization that\nhave been ongoing for a while. Normalization with Syria and the return of Syria\nto the Arab League as part of it is one of these broad steps of regional normalization.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, this is a vision of an Arab-centric regional order. But, unlike in\nthe past, it is a design that aims to make all non-Arab countries part of the\norder in some ways. Previously, non-Arab countries were included in the Arab\nvision of a regional order to balance each other. For example, after the\n1990\u201391 Gulf Crisis, the Peace Process envisaged normalization with Israel and,\nfor a short period, also embraced Iran under Rafsanjani as part of the new regional\norder. This vision excluded Turkey, which then had problematic relations with\nSyria. In the period after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a new regime\nemerged that excluded Iran, saw Turkey as a balancing actor against Iran, and\nestablished a tacit partnership with Israel over the opposition to Iran. However,\nthis new vision aims to normalize relations with Israel, Iran, and Turkey. The\nGulf countries, which felt threatened by the Arab uprisings, now believe they\nhave defeated the political Islamist wave represented by the Muslim Brotherhood\nmovement. They are also negotiating with global powers in areas where they\nthink they have room for manoeuvre, with the confidence created by the security\nof rising oil revenues and opportunities created by changing global relations.\nOn the other side, non-Arab countries also seem to be ready to engage with the\nGulf. The Iranian regime, which has serious legitimacy problems inside and has\nbeen unable to return to the nuclear deal, needs this normalization. Turkey is\ndealing with economic difficulties and has troubled relations with its\ntraditional allies. Finally, Israel needs to have open relations with more Arab\ncountries, especially Saudi Arabia, without solving the Palestinian problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The critical issue is that the Gulf countries want to engage with\nnon-Arab actors and make them part of the regional order under their own terms.\nYet the weakest point here is Syria. No Arab country has much influence in\nSyria, which is one of the key regional policy issues. This concern seems to be\nthe crux of Syria\u2019s return to the Arab League. Otherwise, Syria\u2019s return to the\n22-member League, which was founded in 1945 and has not been active in problem-solving\nand even inadequate in developing regional cooperation, could not be a\nsignificant development. But there is a symbolic significance; the problem of\nSyria is now also part of the Arab world. In fact, a regional organization such\nas the Arab League, which doesn’t really have many functions, works in such\nsituations; where a single country’s participation in the political settlement\nprocess in Syria is more complex or weaker, an organization representing all\nArab countries, including Syria, can become a more legitimate actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prof. Dr. Meliha Benli Altun\u0131\u015f\u0131k, Middle East Technical University<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Meliha Benli Altun\u0131\u015f\u0131k is a faculty member in the Department of International Relations at METU. She works on the international relations of the Middle East, Turkey’s Middle East Policy, Rentier states.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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To cite this work: <\/strong>Meliha Benli Altun\u0131\u015f\u0131k , \u201cSyria’s Return to the Arab League \u201d, Panorama, Online, 27 August 2023, https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/blog\/2023\/08\/27\/mba-4\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Copyright@UIKPanorama. All on-line and print rights reserved. Opinions expressed in works published by the Panorama belongs to the authors alone unless otherwise stated, and do not imply endorsement by the IRCT, Global Academy, or the Editors\/Editorial Board of Panorama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Arab League announced on May 7 that it ended its decision to suspend Syria\u2019s membership 12 years ago over the violent suppression of the revolts that began in the Arab Spring process. Following this, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attended the Arab League Summit held in Saudi Arabia on May 19 and was welcomed very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[497,506,486],"tags":[542,656,586,633],"class_list":["post-11340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-mena","category-opinion","tag-arab-league","tag-english","tag-middle-east","tag-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}