Syria’s delegation arrives in Jeddah for Arab League preparatory meetings

A Syrian delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on Monday to participate in preparatory meetings taking place ahead of this week’s Arab League summit, the Syrian news agency SANA reported.

The delegation that included Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Information Minister Butrus Halaq landed at King Abdulaziz International Airport and was welcomed by Saudi Foreign Ministry delegate Mazen bin Hamad al-Himali, SANA said.

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“The title of this summit is the joint Arab action, and we are looking forward to the future,” Mekdad said in a press statement upon his arrival. “We are happy to be in Saudi Arabia, and we hope the summit will be successful.”

He said that this will be an opportunity to “tell our Arab brothers that we don’t look at the past, rather, we look at the future. There are many challenges to be discussed and [require] mobilizing our Arab forces to confront them, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the climate issue.”

Saudi Arabia is hosting the 32nd Arab League summit on May 19 and Syria is participating for the first time in years after being suspended and isolated over its crackdown on protests that spiraled into a war.

However, recent rapprochement with Syria has led the country to be readmitted to the Arab League and King Salman last week extended an invitation to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend the summit.

On Monday, Syria’s Economy and Trade Minister Mohammed Samer al-Khalil participated in the Economic and Social Council meeting that was held as part of the preparatory meetings for the summit.

The meeting kicked off by an opening statement from Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed al-Jadaan, who welcomed Syria back into the Arab League.

For his part, al-Khalil called on Arab countries to invest in the war-torn country saying that there are various opportunities the country has to offer.

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