The foreign minister-level meeting of the League of Arab States held recently in Cairo adopted a resolution to reinstate Syria’s membership of the league.

With the “Arab Spring” which swept across Arab countries in 2011, an anti-government riot took place in Syria at the instigation of the U.S. and the West. After the riot, the hostile forces made an all-out attempt to isolate and stifle the country eventually suspending Syria's membership of the League of Arab States.

The U.S. attempted overtly and covertly to isolate and stifle the Syrian government by cutting all its ties with Arab countries. The U.S., employing the means of pressure, openly opposed the Arab countries’ efforts at normalizing diplomatic relations with Syria. It also resorted to all sorts of despicable means aimed at obstructing the reinstatement of Syria's membership of the League of Arab States.

Despite the adverse conditions during the long drawn-out crisis, Syria has always been optimistic, vigorously struggled to tide over the national crisis and strived to expand its external relations frustrating all sorts of stratagems of the hostile forces.

Stating that the U.S. can never subdue Syria by means of sanctions and blockade, the Syrian government expressed at home and abroad its resolute will to fight against them to the last. It also conducted active diplomacy to this end, including President Bashar’s visit to Oman last March, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates’ recent tour around Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and other Arab countries and the work with several high-level personages who visited Syria.

Meanwhile, there is a growing tendency towards independence among Arab countries. They reject external interference and strive to resolve regional issues in their own interests by dint of their collective strength – a reflection of changed structure of international relations and the requirement of developing situation.

There have been active movements to improve relations between Syria and several other Arab countries; foreign ministers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia visited Syria in February and April respectively for the first time since the outbreak of the crisis. Many Arab countries also supported the reinstatement of Syria’s membership in the League of Arab States despite the outrageous pressure and threat posed by the U.S. scheming to isolate and stifle Syria. As a result, Syria was reinstated in the League of Arab States after 12 years.

The reinstatement of the League membership is a great victory of the government and people of Syria which is of another significance as it dealt a blow to the attempts of hostile forces including the U.S. and the West to topple the independent and legitimate government of Syria.

This clearly shows once again that the cause of the Syrian people is a just one and their struggle for safeguarding the sovereignty and achieving territorial integrity will never be deterred by any extreme acts of the U.S. and other hostile forces.

We extend warm welcome to the reinstatement of Syria’s membership in the League of Arab States. We also extend invariable support to and solidarity with the just cause of the Syrian people.

Yang Myong Song

Secretary General

Korea-Arab Association