Arab world embraces Syria after earthquake tragedy
A commission of senior Arab leaders met with the president of the Islamic Republic of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus on Sunday, another sign of thawing ties after more than a decade of exclusion due to the Syrian war conflict. The heads of the chambers of representatives from Arab League countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Libya, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, as well as representatives from Oman and Lebanon, travelled to Syria as part of a delegation from the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union. They met with Syrian diplomats and Assad, SANA news agency reported. "We cannot do without Syria, and Syria cannot do without its Arab environment, to which we hope it can return," said the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Mohammed Halbousi.
Syria was largely cut off from the rest of the Arab world after Assad's deadly crackdown on protests against his government in 2011. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership of the organisation in 2011 and many Arab countries pulled their envoys and ambassadors out of Damascus. But Assad has benefited from a great deal of support from Arab states in the wake of the devastating 6 February earthquake, which killed more than 5,900 people across his country, according to Syrian government and UN figures. Donors include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. More planeloads of aid were sent from Abu Dhabi than any other nation.
The Arab Spring caused damage beyond human terror. While the sanctions on Damascus were approved by most countries in the international community, the cruelty of these sanctions has meant that, more than ten years later, it has taken days for rescue efforts to reach Syria. US sanctions prevented most of the world's countries from sending humanitarian aid to Syria after a powerful earthquake struck the north of the Arab nation. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the US is not in direct contact with the Syrian government because it would be "ironic" and "counterproductive" to help a government that, according to him, has "brutalised" its population.
It should also be recalled that in 2019, US President Donald Trump signed the Caesar Act, which gives the US government the power to impose restrictions on organisations and individuals providing aid to Damascus. Restrictions are imposed on the transport of medicine, humanitarian aid, search and rescue teams and even the unloading of aircraft over Syrian territory. For years, a Sputnik reporter in Syria reported that local emergency services lacked the equipment to get trapped people out quickly. This explains why the death toll in Syria is so high. For his part, the minister in charge of local government, Hussein Majluf, assured that Syria is determined to act with all its might to overcome the consequences of the earthquake.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke to Assad by phone for the first time on 7 February and Jordan's foreign minister made his first trip to Damascus on 15 February. Assad then travelled to Oman on 20 February, the first time he had left Syria since the earthquake. Asad's visit to the United Arab Emirates in 2022 was his first trip to an Arab state since the outbreak of war in 2011. The lawmakers' visit follows a small summit in Baghdad that affirmed the Arab League's intentions for Syria to return to the organisation despite the war.
Egyptian parliament speaker Hanafy El-Gebaly said in Damascus that an Arab delegation would "visit the brotherly country of Syria to support the Syrian people" after the earthquake. He referred to the Baghdad meeting's joint statement on the need to start the process of "returning Syria to the Arabs". The Red Crescent declared that the country is ready to receive any international aid from any country other than Israel, stressing that Western countries are not interested or concerned about the humanitarian disaster that has caused the country's disaster on the Syrian people. They also called for the unilateral lifting of sanctions against Damascus.
Saudi Arabia does not mix politics with human life. Arab strategist and political expert Fawwaz Qaseb said the Kingdom has always kept its humanitarian stance separate from politics. According to him, Riyadh's actions contribute to the resumption of Gulf states' relations with Damascus as part of the Kingdom's efforts to balance and unify different views on Syria, one of the most important regional and international issues. Strengthening the Arab role in Syria is necessary and 'urgent' for Abu Dhabi.
As mentioned above, this convergence intensifies in the aftermath of the earthquake. In addition to receiving the first Saudi aircraft in a decade and several senior Saudi officials, al-Assad had his first phone call with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and paid an official visit to Oman in the aftermath of the earthquake. After years of focusing on relations with Russia and Iran, Damascus is once again trying to mend relations with its Arab neighbours.