Coordination between Arab countries to “lift the freeze on Syria’s membership” in the Arab League

Number of Arab countries, including Tunisia and Algeria, are coordinating a proposal to lift the freeze on Syria’s membership in the Arab League, a Russian source said on Wednesday.

According to the agency “Sputnik” the source, who was not identified, that the Tunisian President, Baiji Kayed Sibsi, will hold consultations during the economic summit in Lebanon, on the invitation of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, to the Arab summit in Tunisia in March.

The Tunisian Foreign Affairs Minister Khamis Jahnawi denied in a previous statement the validity of these data and said that the Arab League is authorized to invite Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to the Arab summit in Tunisia.

Al Jahnawi said that Tunisia has not sent invitations to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

He pointed out that a decision on Syria could be made after the meeting of the Arab leaders at the summit.  

“They decide, not Tunisia,” he said.

Preparations for the fourth session of the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, to be held in Beirut for the first time, are currently under way amid a sharp split in attitudes among Arab leaders on inviting Syria to attend the summit.

With regard to the Algerian position, no official response has been issued by it to confirm or deny this information.

Since the beginning of the crisis in Algeria, Algeria has maintained its relationship with the Syrian government, and has stressed at every time the need to open dialogue and negotiations between the conflicting parties in Syria.

Algeria justified its position on the Syrian crisis with the unconditional support of Damascus for the Algerian revolution, and the channels of communication did not break between the two countries, either through meetings or visits exchanged between senior officials of both countries.