However, the meeting ended in the early hours of Saturday morning without a concrete decision on Syria’s return to the Arab League, nor a roadmap for this purpose.

In a final statement, issued at the end of the discussions, the ministers called for a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Syria and stressed the importance of Arab leadership in efforts to end the crisis and called for intensified consultations to make these efforts successful.

The meeting brought together the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), in addition to Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. Although still excluded from the Arab League, Syria has recently received signs of reconciliation from several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia and even Saudi Arabia, who has been at odds with Damascus during the war.

The meeting should have ended more than 10 years of isolation for Damascus, which suffered a war imposed by the United States and its allies, with a death toll of half a million, and half of the Syrian population becoming refugees.

jrr/jav/mem/fvt.