| | | Date: Jan 28, 2019 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | UN envoy meets Arab League chief for Syria talks | Agence France Presse
CAIRO: The new U.N. special envoy for Syria held talks Sunday with the head of the Arab League, whose members appear divided about whether to readmit the war-torn country.
The League, which will hold its annual summit in Tunisia in March, suspended Syria's membership in November 2011 as the death toll in the country's civil war mounted.
Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen, who this month become the fourth U.N. negotiator aiming to resolve the nearly eight-year conflict, met with Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit in Cairo Sunday, the organization said.
They discussed the latest talks among Arab states about the organization’s decisions on Syria since 2011, the League said in a statement.
Abul Gheit also pointed to the importance of "reaching a peaceful solution" to the Syrian crisis, it said.
Pedersen was also scheduled to meet with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
Several Arab states including Lebanon and Tunisia have recently called for Syria's return to the Arab League.
In December, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir made the first visit by any Arab leader to the Syrian capital since 2011, and the United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus.
In another sign of a diplomatic thaw, the speaker of Jordan's Parliament invited his Syrian counterpart to meetings of the Arab Parliamentary Union in Amman in March, Jordanian state news agency Petra reported Sunday. |
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