As Arab countries have signaled the normalization of ties with Syria’s Bashar Assad, Damascus will host an energy conference in 2024, the Syrian energy minister said Thursday.
The announcement followed a unanimous vote from members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) during a virtual meeting Thursday, the ministry said. The conference will be held in Damascus, according to a ministry statement on Facebook and the official state news agency SANA. Qatar is hosting the 2023 conference.
Arab countries have in recent months been making limited moves to improve relations with Syria, a decade after it was shunned and kicked out of the Arab League at the onset of the country’s civil war in 2011.
The rapprochement has included the reopening of several embassies, visits by Arab officials to Damascus and restoring some commercial ties with the war-torn country. The moves are a recognition of the facts on the ground – after years of war and despite the initial support by some Arab countries to his opposition, Assad’s regime has survived and his forces have regained control of much of the country.
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