The U.S. State Department has announced it will not normalize relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, despite many Arab states re-establishing ties with Damascus.
In a recent phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, Blinken stated that the U.S. does not support normalization until there is genuine political progress in Syria in line with a 2015 UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2254 which calls for UN supervision over elections in Syria.
“The United States will not normalize relations with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the State Department has said, as many of Washington’s Arab allies re-establish ties with Damascus.
The State Department said late on Thursday that top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken discussed a recent meeting in Amman between Syria and its Arab neighbors during a phone call with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.
‘Secretary Blinken made clear that the United States will not normalize relations with the Assad regime and does not support others normalizing until there is authentic, UN-facilitated political progress in line with UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2254’, the department said.
The 2015 resolution calls for free and fair elections in Syria under UN supervision.
The foreign ministers of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan met for talks in the Jordanian capital on Monday amid a push to bring al-Assad’s government back into the Arab fold.
Syria was suspended from the Arab League and ostracised by regional powerbrokers in 2011 after its crackdown on Arab Spring protests, which turned into a protracted war. The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.
As the Syrian government regained control over large parts of the country – with support from Iran and Russia – some Arab countries began to soften their stance towards Damascus.
The U.S., however, has maintained that it would not change its opposition to al-Assad without an inclusive political settlement to the conflict.
The State Department said that Blinken expressed gratitude to Jordan for the ‘hosting of refugees and reinforced the U.S. position that Syria must create conditions including greatly improved respect for human rights that would motivate refugees to return in a safe, voluntary, and dignified manner’.
Earlier this week, Blinken said the U.S. was ‘engaged’ with the Syrian government to secure the release of Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012. U.S. officials have accused the Syrian government of detaining Tice, a claim that Damascus had denied.
‘We’re extensively engaged with regard to Austin – engaged with Syria, engaged with third countries – seeking to find a way to get him home. And we’re not going to relent until we do’, Blinken said on Wednesday.
Because the U.S. does not recognize al-Assad’s government as legitimate, it was not clear how the purported direct discussions between Washington and Damascus were taking place.
In recent months, relations have warmed between Syria and several Arab countries. In February, Egypt’s foreign minister visited Damascus for the first time since 2011, and last month, Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat also made a trip to the Syrian capital and met al-Assad.
The rapprochement came amid a Chinese-brokered detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The Syrian government remains under heavy U.S. sanctions aimed at isolating the country economically in response to widely documented human rights violations”. -Al Jazeera
Members of the League will vote on a reversal of the freeze on Syria’s membership in Cairo on Sunday at an extraordinary session called for to discuss Syria and Sudan.
The diplomats will decide upon a draft resolution authorizing Syria's return to the Cairo-based Arab bloc after eleven years of suspension, according to the statement.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune affirmed that Syria is a founding member of the Arab League, and cannot be deprived of its rights.
President Tebboune indicated that “there is an international system that imposes itself on the weak before the strong, and we hope that will change”.
If the members of the Arab League approve of Syria’s membership, the Syrian delegation at the 32nd Arab summit expected to be held in Saudi Arabia on May 19th is more than likely going to be presided by President Bashar Al Assad, much to the chagrin of the U.S. State Department.