IRAQ PM KADHIMI PUSHES FOR ASSAD’S RETURN TO ARAB LEAGUE

Mon 12 April 2021:

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has reiterated his support for Syria to be readmitted into the Arab League, a decade after President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime was kicked out of the organisation.

In a meeting between Al-Kadhimi and the Arab League’s Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Baghdad over the weekend, the two discussed a number of issues relating to the Arab states and the international community. The Iraqi prime minister assured his support for ending the ongoing conflict in Yemen, helping Lebanon in its political and economic situation, and allowing the Syrian regime to return to the Arab League.

Al-Kadhimi’s comments come almost two months after Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein called for Syria’s membership to be reinstated after it was revoked in 2011 following the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on protests throughout the country.

During Aboul Gheit’s visit, Hussein also urged Baghdad and the League “to work together to find a mechanism for dialogue with different countries that have influence in Syria” in an effort to resolve the ongoing decade-long conflict.

The continued and increasing instability in Syria, Hussein insisted, negatively impacts neighbouring Iraq’s politics and economy.