US: Syria ineligible to rejoin Arab League

Arab foreign ministers agreed over the weekend to end the isolation of President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government. Washington criticized the move.

The US government has criticized Syria’s return to the Arab League. “We do not believe that Syria deserves readmission to the Arab League at this time, and we have made that clear to all of our partners,” a US State Department spokesman said on Monday. However, many goals are shared with Arab allies.

These include access to humanitarian supplies for all Syrians or the safe return of refugees. It is thought that the partners could use direct contact with Syria to make further demands in these areas, the spokesman said. He stressed that normalizing relations with Syria was not an issue for the US at the moment.

Over the weekend, Arab foreign ministers called for an end to the isolation of President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government, which was ousted from the organization in 2011 due to brutal actions against its own people. At the time, Syrian government troops violently suppressed protests in the country.

(APA/dpa)