The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt. (Credit: Nabil Ismaïl/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Jumblatt on Monday criticized the reintegration of Syria into the Arab League.
"Were the Syrian people asked if they wanted to return to the Arab fold? Of course not," Jumblatt wrote on his Twitter account. "The Arab League is like the Titanic; it is drowning these people."
"The regime has been granted freedom to act and those who escaped torture, prisons or displacement will be wiped out by the tender embrace [of the Arab League]," he continued.
Syria was expelled from the Arab League 11 years ago in condemnation of the crackdown on anti-regime protests launched in 2011, which later escalated into a bloody civil war.
On Sunday, Arab League foreign ministers decided to reinstate Syria, cementing a regional push to normalize relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The decision comes against a backdrop of reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and at a time when the Syrian president desperately needs investors to tackle the enormous task of reconstruction in his country.
Qatar, which has strongly opposed Assad since the start of the Syrian war in 2011, said Sunday that it would not normalize relations with Damascus.