Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on May 4, 2023. (Credit: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament)
BEIRUT — Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday welcomed Syria's reintegration into the Arab League, announced hours earlier after a meeting of the pan-Arab institution's foreign ministers in Cairo.
"Syria's return to the Arab fold and the return of the Arabs to Syria gives hope for a new resurrection of joint Arab work," Berri said in a statement.
"Even if this decision took years, it is a step in the right direction towards a return to Arab reason, which can only recover through unity," he continued.
Arab foreign ministers decided Sunday to reinstate Syria in the Arab League after having expelled it in 2011, as a sign of condemnation of the repression of a popular uprising that degenerated into a bloody war.
After more than 11 years of diplomatic isolation, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad recently emerged from his persona non grata status after Arab diplomatic efforts were made to bring his country back into the Arab fold. Some observers believe he may even attend the pan-Arab organization's annual summit of heads of state in Jeddah on May 19.
This is a dramatic turnaround considering that in 2013, the anti-Assad opposition was able to occupy Syria's seat at an Arab League summit in Doha, Qatar.