By ANIKET DIXIT
Published on Thursday 20 July 2023 at 03:05 PM - here is a full copy:
US State Department and Arab League start talking about urgent Middle East issues
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Riyadh: Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, and Antony Blinken, the secretary of state of the United States, met on Wednesday in Washington to discuss the urgent issues surrounding the Middle East.
The US State Department claimed in a statement on its website that the "strategic dialogue" is a "opportunity for us to work even more closely together on the many issues that are affecting the lives of people in all of the countries represented by the Arab League as well as the United States."
The comprehensive conversation, which Aboul Gheit described as the first of its kind at the level of the US state secretary and GCC secretary-general, will "explore further the level of cooperation" and "deepen the relationship."
The statement made no mention of specifics, but some news reports have quoted political analysts as saying that, now that Syria has been readmitted to the 22-member alliance, the US will follow up on its earlier statement for the Arab League to press the Assad regime to address pressing issues.
The northwest regions of Syria, which are controlled by the opposition and home to more than 4 million displaced people, have been requested by the UN for greater access by international aid organizations. The UN Security Council was unable to come to an agreement last week to maintain the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing, which permits aid organizations to enter from Turkey.
During the height of the so-called "Arab Spring" uprisings, Syria's membership in the league was suspended in 2011 due to the Assad regime's deadly crackdown on dissent. The UN estimates that the ensuing armed conflict has resulted in the deaths of 306,887 civilians and the displacement of more than 12 million Syrians, including 5.4 million who as of 2022 were refugees in other countries.
Other urgent regional issues that are anticipated to be covered in the Arab League-US dialogue include the conflict in Sudan, Israel's escalating land aggression against the Palestinians, Yemen's peace initiative, and more.
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