Jordan FM meets Syrian counterpart ahead of Amman regional meeting on Syria

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad ahead of a regional meeting together with the ministers of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt on Monday. 

Officials from various countries are in the Jordanian capital Amman to discuss a political solution to the crisis in Syria amid a series of moves towards normalising relations with Bashar al-Assad's regime. 

عقد نائب رئيس الوزراء ووزير الخارجية وشؤون المغتربين @AymanHsafadi ونظيره وزير الخارجية والمغتربين السوري الدكتور فيصل المقداد، اجتماعاً قبيل انطلاق أعمال #اجتماع_عمّان_التشاوري الذي تستضيفه المملكة اليوم، ويشارك فيه وزراء خارجية #السعودية و #سوريا و #العراق و #مصر، استعرض الجهود… pic.twitter.com/lKA5DLBu97

— وزارة الخارجية وشؤون المغتربين الأردنية (@ForeignMinistry) May 1, 2023

Jordan's foreign ministry tweeted that the meeting between Safadi and Mekdad "reviewed the efforts made to launch an Arab leadership role to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis based on the Jordanian initiative and other Arab proposals, and the two ministers also discussed several bilateral issues such as border security, combating drug smuggling, water, and refugees".

Jordan earlier proposed the formation of an Arab group to directly liaise with the Syrian regime to end the conflict in Syria in what would effectively normalise relations between Damascus and several other Arab states. 

Syria's devastating civil war began in 2011 after regime forces violently suppressed mass protests, killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians. The regime and its allies Russia and Iran have been accused of committing war crimes during the fighting. 

Several Arab countries severed ties with Damascus following the suppression of the protests in 2011. Relations over the past two years have been warming, however, recent reports suggested that some Arab states, including Qatar, Morocco, Kuwait and Yemen had resisted Assad's return to the Arab fold.