Emirates seeks to pave the way for the return of the Syrian president to the Arab world

By surprise receiving Syrian President Bashar al-Asad on Friday, the United Arab Emirates is trying to pave the way for Syria's return to the Arab world after years of exclusion, experts say.

The meeting between al-Assad and the leader of the Emirates, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed, was the first in an Arab country since 2011, when the war began in Syria, which left half a million dead and millions displaced.

The Al-Asad regime, accused of “crimes against humanity” and considered a pariah by the West, is subject to sanctions that have significantly reduced its economic ties with the rest of the world.

In late 2011, Syria was excluded from the Arab League, when all Arab countries opposed the government's repression of peaceful and pro-democracy protests in the country.

In 2012, the Emirates and four other Arab monarchies in the Gulf — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar — also broke their relations with Syria after accusing Al-Assad of “killing his people” and decided to support the opposition and the rebels.

But at the end of 2018, after successive victories of Syrian power militarily supported by its Russian ally, Emirates was the first Gulf monarchy to reopen its embassy in Damascus.

In 2021, this approach culminated in the visit of the head of Emirati diplomacy to the Syrian capital.

- “Leader of the Arab World” -

Emirates “considers itself a leader of the Arab world and launches initiatives in the hope that others will follow the pace (...) They are pushing for Syria's return to the Arab world, regardless of the regime's role in the death and displacement of many Syrians,” Bader al-Saif, a professor at Kuwait University and a researcher at the Carnegie Study Center, explains to AFP.

Political scientist Karim Emile Bitar agrees. For him, “the Emirates began to assume the role of explorers several years ago, when they were the first in 2018 to re-establish diplomatic relations” with the Al-Assad regime.

For Basam Abu Abdullah, director of the Damascus Centre for Strategic Studies, the power of Al-Assad seeks, in addition to a political rapprochement, to revive economic ties.

Syria needs billions of dollars to rebuild the country and its war-torn infrastructure. And to relaunch the economy.

“Syria faces major economic challenges and needs the support of Arab countries,” he tells AFP.

- Relations with Russia -

Thus, the visit of the Syrian president to the Emirates, after the head of the Emirati diplomacy traveled to Moscow, is significant.

Al-Asad is a key ally of Russia and “the Emiratis see in it an opportunity to negotiate a new reality in the Middle East, which would stabilize the region because Asad won its civil war and is supported by a nuclear power,” says Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute.

The Emirates, even if with a strategic regional partner from Washington, “see Russia as a major player in the Middle East in the coming years and a foreign power more predictable than the Americans,” he adds.

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