Syria leader invited to March 4 Arab League summit on Gaza

DAMASCUS: Syria’s interim president Ahmed Al Sharaa received an invitation on Sunday to attend an Egyptian-hosted Arab League meeting on Gaza, the Syrian presidency said.

“The president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Mr Ahmed Al Sharaa, received an official invitation from the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt... to participate in the extraordinary Arab League summit” on March 4 in Cairo, the presidency statement said.

The meeting was called in response to a widely criticised plan by US President Donald Trump, who has said his government should take over the war-battered Gaza Strip and redevelop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Its Palestinian inhabitants, according to Trump’s plan, would move elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan.

Trump’s plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments as well as other world leaders, and the United Nations warned against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory.

Sharaa has called Trump’s plan “a very huge crime that cannot happen”.

Syria under former president Bashar Al Assad was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over his brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests which spiralled into a devastating war.

Damascus was allowed to return to the regional bloc in 2023.

Late last year, a coalition spearheaded by Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Assad in a lightning offensive. He was named interim president soon after.

Egypt backed Assad until the end, even as Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al Sham closed in on Damascus, though it has engaged carefully with Syria since his fall.

The Cairo meeting next month would be the first time Sharaa represents Syria in the Arab League.

The European Union on Monday eased sanctions on Syria’s energy, transport and banking sectors in a bid to help the country’s reconstruction.

Syria’s new leaders have been clamouring for the West to ease sanctions imposed to target Assad’s regime during the civil war.

But Europe and other powers have been reluctant to move before clear signals from the new Islamist-led rulers in Damascus that they are serious on having an inclusive transition.

The step approved at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels includes suspending sanctions on the energy and transport sectors, as well as allowing transfers to five banks and making funds available to Syria’s central bank.

“The EU aims to facilitate engagement with Syria, its people, and businesses, in key areas of energy and transport, as well as to facilitate financial and banking transactions associated with such sectors and those needed for humanitarian and reconstruction,” the bloc said.

Officials say the measures could be reimposed if Syria’s new leaders break promises to respect the rights of minorities and move towards democracy.

Much of Syria’s infrastructure was destroyed and the economy ravaged by years of international isolation after Assad’s 2011 crackdown on opposition sparked the civil war.

The United Nations said last week that at current growth rates, Syria would need more than 50 years to get back to its economic level before the outbreak of its devastating civil war.

The EU and other international powers are jostling for influence in Syria after the ouster of Assad, who was backed by Russia and Iran.

The sanctions being lifted do not include those on Syria’s interim president Al Sharaa and his Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham.