Algeria requests the return of Syria to the Arab League

BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:10 A.M.) – Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum stated on Friday that he asked the League of Arab States to end the freeze on Syria’s membership and to re-represent it again in its meetings and activities.

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According to Algerian Radio, Boukadoum said: “the absence of Syria has caused great harm to the League and the Arabs.” He would add that “we must push for the return of Syria’s membership and work for Damascus to return to the League of Arab States.”

In a press statement during his meeting with his Mauritanian counterpart, Ismail Ould Cheikh, Boukadoum considered that “the absence of Syria has done great harm to the League and the Arabs, and that Algeria’s position is clear and decisive in terms of the need for Syria to return to the university.”

Previously, Tunisia failed to persuade the Arab nations to return Syria to the Arab League, despite Damascus’ reconciliation with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Syria has been suspended from the Arab League since 2012, when a coalition of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, voted to suspend their membership.

Since then, Russia and a number of other Arab states have sought Syria’s return to the Arab League; however, according to diplomatic sources in Damascus, the U.S. has been the primary culprit in blocking their reinstatement.

The sources say the U.S. has warned some states against voting in favor of Damascus’ return to the Arab League; this includes Lebanon, who attempted to bring up a vote on behalf of Syria last year.