Arab League must re-evaluate Syria membership suspension: Ambassador

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim Ali says his country must return to the Arab League, calling on the 22-member regional organization to reconsider "its wrong decision to suspend Syria's membership.”

“The Arab League needs Syria because it cannot function well without it. The organization has violated its charter by suspending Syria's membership in the organization,” Arabic-language online newspaper Elnashra quoted Ali as saying on Friday.

He added that the Arab League made this decision under pressure from the United States and Europe.

“It has become clear that many Arab countries noticed that they have an interest to resume their diplomatic ties with Syria and to return the country to the organization,” Ali said.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on February 3 that his country will eventually return to the Arab League, stressing that the Damascus government will never surrender to blackmail or accept conditions for the restoration of its membership to the regional organization.

“Those who are trying to ignore Syria or to impose conditions for its return to the Arab League will not succeed, since Syria will not surrender to blackmail and is not primarily concerned with anything other than its domestic problems,” Mekdad said.

He added that certain anti-Syria decisions are being made by some Arab states on the instructions of extra-regional powers.

SS