Arab Foreign Ministers Discuss Syria Crisis at Saudi Meeting

Gulf Arab foreign ministers and their counterparts from Egypt, Iraq and Jordan discussed Syria’s possible return to the Arab fold at a meeting in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The meeting, held in the city of Jeddah, was called by Saudi Arabia, amid a recent thaw in regional tensions, but ended without agreement, the statement said.Some Arab states, including regional heavyweights Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, have mended ties with Damascus, in contrast to 2011 when many Western and Arab states boycotted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 over his brutal crackdown on protests.

However, Syria’s broader normalization with the Arab world remains a sensitive issue for several countries.Earlier this week, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, said the original basis for the 2011 suspension of Syria’s membership in the Arab League still stands.