Leaders and representatives from Arab League member states met Friday in Jeddah.

One of the big stories was the attendance of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This is the first time in 12 years that he’s participated after being suspended by the bloc.  

To discuss:

• Salman Al-Ansari is a Saudi political researcher.
• Ammar Waqqaf is a Syrian political analyst and is director of the GNOSOS think tank.
• Abdel Bari Atwan is Editor-in-Chief of Rai al-Youm.
• Edmund Ghareeb is an academic and Middle East expert.

For more:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was attending the Arab League Summit on Friday for the first time in 12 years in what the leading US magazine Newsweek described as a defeat for Washington.https://t.co/2fqZgnUrpp pic.twitter.com/z4egniNUsA

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) May 19, 2023

The Arab League Summit kicked off on Friday in the Saudi city of Jeddah, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attending for the first time in 12 years. It shows the Arab world will bottom out from division and create a new path for it to pursue independent diplomacy through… pic.twitter.com/PKGqsEMTuc

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) May 19, 2023