Assad, with the help of Russia and Iran-backed forces, has all but crushed a mainly Sunni Muslim armed opposition that evolved from peaceful demonstrations in 2011.
Factbox: Who are Syrian President Bashar al-Assad s foes? reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Expected Saudi-Turkish reconciliation, any implications for Syria?
Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud (Anadolu Agency)
Enab Baladi – Jana Alisa
The Syria issue has often been a point of disagreement or reconciliation on the table of negotiations between influential actors. Recently, several questions have been raised about the expected Turkish-Saudi reconciliation and its implications for Syria on various levels, notably militarization since the two countries support different Syrian military groups.
After four years of severed Turkish-Saudi ties, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on 10 May, paid a two-day visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The fragmented opposition in Syria on Thursday announced that they had reached an agreement to send a united delegation to next week’s UN-brokered peace talks.
reported on that day s visit to Damascus, by a Saudi
delegation headed by Saudi
General Intelligence Directorate chief Khalid Al-Humaidan. At a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his special security advisor Ali Mamlouk, the sides agreed to reopen the Saudi Embassy in Damascus, as a first step toward normalizing relations between the two countries. Also according to the daily, the Saudi delegation informed Assad that Saudi Arabia would support Syria s return to the Arab League, from which it had been suspended in 2011. The daily said that the Saudis were taking this step in the context of a Saudi assessment that the U.S. is likely to return to the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran and to rescind its sanctions on it.