This handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency Telegram account on May 10, 2023 shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meeting with Saudi's ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar Al-Sudairy, in Damascus. (Syrian Presidency Telegram Page / AFP)
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received an invitation to next week's Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the presidency said Wednesday, the first such invitation since the country's war began. The pan-Arab body had suspended Damascus in November 2011 over its crackdown on protests which began earlier that year and which spiralled into a war that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry. On Sunday, the Arab League welcomed back Syria's government, securing Assad's return to the Arab fold after years of isolation. Assad received an invitation from Saudi King Salman "to participate in the thirty-second Arab League summit, which will be held in Jeddah on May 19", the Syrian presidency said in a statement. Assad said the summit "will enhance joint Arab action to achieve the aspirations of the Arab peoples," the statement added. Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar al-Sudairi, delivered the invitation. The last Arab League summit Assad attended was in 2010 in Libya. The invitation comes a day after Riyadh and Damascus announced that work would resume at their respective diplomatic missions in Syria and Saudi Arabia, after more than a decade of severed ties. The kingdom cut ties with Assad's government in 2012 and Riyadh had long openly championed Assad's ouster, backing Syrian rebels in earlier stages of the war. In April, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with Assad in Damascus on the first such visit since the war broke out. A flurry of diplomatic activity has been underway in recent weeks after a deadly earthquake struck Syria and Turkey and a decision by arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, a close ally of Damascus, to resume ties shifted the political landscape. Assad hopes normalisation with wealthy Gulf states can bring economic relief and money for reconstruction, as broader international funding remains elusive without a United Nations-backed political settlement to the conflict. But analysts say Western sanctions on Syria are likely to continue to deter investment. The United States and Britain said Tuesday they still opposed relations with Assad but would work with Arab states that are re-establishing relations. "Our position is clear: We are not going to be in the business of normalising relations with Assad and with that regime," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington. While Syria's front lines have mostly quietened, large parts of the north remain outside government control, and no political solution to the conflict is in sight.