US says it will not normalize ties with Syria’s Bashar Al Assad

Middle East, News, US May 6, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington will not normalize its relations with Syria’s Bashar Al Assad government. He said it during a call with Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi on May 5, 2023.

During the call, Blinken and his Jordanian counterpart discussed advancing an inclusive political solution to the Syrian conflict following the May 1 Amman meeting.

According to the U.S. State Department, Washington “will not normalize relations with the Assad regime and does not support others normalizing until it is authentic, UN-facilitated political progress in line with UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2254.”

The foreign ministers of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan met for talks in the Jordanian capital on May 1, 2023, to discuss the possibilities of bringing Assad’s government back into the Arab fold. The Amman meeting was one of the latest efforts between Syria and its Arab neighbors to normalize ties with the Assad regime after its evident victory in Syria and to integrate Syria back into the Arab League.

Syria’s participation in the Arab League was suspended in 2011 following the Arab Spring and the civil war that broke out in the country as a result of it. After gathering support from several regional powerbrokers in the region including Iran and Russia, Assad’s regime managed to reestablish its control over large parts of the country.

After staying isolated for a long time in the regional geopolitical landscape, Assad has increased engagements with regional and international leaders. He visited the UAE and Oman this year in the Middle East, as well as Russia last month as Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to mend relations between Syria and Turkey.

*^{Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria attend a summit in Amman, Jordan, on May 1, 2023. (Image Credit: SPA)}*

Since Damascus’s evident victory in Syria’s decade-long internal war, several regional actors have been trying to mend their relations with the Assad regime, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Last month, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia on an invitation from his counterpart in Jeddah. This was the first time that a Syrian foreign minister met a Saudi counterpart since 2011.

Despite the Arab world’s increasing acceptance of Assad’s regime in Syria, the U.S. has maintained that it would not change its position on matters related to Bashar Al Assad, largely due to his affiliation with the Russian and Iranian governments.

Damascus remains under heavy sanctions from the U.S., as Washington aims to isolate the Assad regime in response to its widely documented human rights violations during the era of conflict. The U.S. has discouraged its allies on numerous occasions not to move closer to Al Assad’s government as it does not see it to be legitimate leadership for Syria.