Arab foreign ministers met on Wednesday for a preparatory meeting ahead of the major summit. The Arab League’s Secretary General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, welcomed Syria’s re-entry into the organization.
Following a 12-year ban due to the Syrian government’s attack on protestors, the Arab world’s top diplomats agreed earlier this month to fully reinstate Syria’s membership in the Arab world.
President Bashar al-Assad is expected to attend a summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. He is set to rub elbows with other Arab presidents and monarchs who have spent years seeking to undermine his authority at the conference.
His foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, has already arrived in Jeddah for the preliminary talks. He has met with colleagues from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon, among other countries, while there.
Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdullah Bou Habib, said that he spoke with Mekdad on the return of refugees and the decrease of drug smuggling in the region. These are two issues that have been at the heart of recent discussions between Arab nations and Syria.
