Beirut, (EFE) suspension, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.
“Bachar al-Assad arrived today in the city of Jeddah, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to participate in the thirty-second meeting of the Council of the Arab League at the summit level, which will take place this Friday, May 19,” he said. the official medium.
Received at the airport by the Secretary General of the Arab League
The Syrian chief executive was received at the airport by the secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Abulgueit, and by a series of senior Saudi officials, including the deputy governor of Mecca, Prince Badr bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, according to the official agency. from the SPA kingdom.
Images broadcast by the Saudi state television Al Ejbariya showed Al Asad descending the stairs of the plane and being received at his foot by Saudi officials, whom he greeted with a handshake, marking the beginning of his first visit to the kingdom since the outbreak of the war in Syria.
Readmitted again on May 7
Syria was readmitted to the pan-Arab entity on May 7, after almost twelve years of suspension due to the brutal repression with which the Al Asad government responded to the popular revolts that began against it in 2011 and that later led to the conflict. armed.
That same reason then led a large part of the Middle East and North Africa to cut or cool relations with Damascus, but various regional countries once again approached the Syrian Executive following the devastating earthquakes that hit Syria last February.
The trend culminated in his return to the Arab League after a campaign to collect support reportedly led by Saudi Arabia, one of the nations that reconciled with Assad in recent months despite the fact that Riyadh had supported the Syrian opposition during the war. civil.