Syria returns to full Arab League membership after 12 years of suspension

The foreign ministers of Arab League countries on Sunday readmitted Syria as a full member of the organisation, 12 years after it was suspended over a crackdown on protests that threatened to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad.

"The participation of delegations of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic in meetings of the Arab League and in all its bodies is resumed as of 7 May," said the final resolution issued by the pan-Arab body following an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

This decision implies "the lifting of the suspension of Syria's membership", one of the spokesmen for the Arab League, Gamal Roshdy, told EFE, affirming that the Syrian government is now "a member like the rest of the countries" of the organisation and "has the right to participate in all activities and events".

Syria's return to the organisation, however, is subject to the fulfilment of a roadmap aimed at resolving "the crisis" unleashed after the protests against al-Assad and the ensuing war that has ravaged the country since 2011, according to the final resolution.

The document stipulates the "taking of practical and effective measures to move gradually towards a solution to the crisis", a process that will be developed "step by step", and that Damascus will allow the delivery of humanitarian aid "to all those in need in Syria", that is, also in areas that are not under government control.

It also provides for the formation of a ministerial contact committee comprising Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt to follow up on the so-called 'Amman Declaration' of 1 May, which includes a series of conditions for Syria's return to the regional arena.

It includes, among other points, the voluntary return of refugees, the departure of 'illegal' foreign forces in Syria, the fight against drug trafficking and the resumption of the work of the Constitutional Committee to draft a new Magna Carta in Syria, a task that the UN has been trying to achieve for years.

Syria's membership of the pan-Arab entity was suspended following the brutal repression with which the Al-Assad government responded to the popular uprisings that erupted in 2011 and subsequently led to an armed conflict.

The same reason led many regional countries to cut off or cool their relations with Damascus, but several of them have been in the midst of an apparent rapprochement since the earthquakes that struck Syria last February.

Arab reconciliation with Syria, driven mainly by Saudi Arabia, became even more on the table after Saudi Arabia and Iran - a close ally of al-Assad - normalised relations in early March.