Syria has been invited to attend the next meeting of regional cooperation organization the Arab League, to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on May 19. The invitation was issued by the Saudi government, which had long been opposed to normalizing relations with Syria's Bashar Assad regime and had even previously supported anti-government fighters in the country's civil war.
Syria was suspended from the body in 2011, shortly after its peaceful revolution began to turn into a bloody civil war, one that has since lapsed into a stalemate. Most recently though, members of the Arab League have started to rebuild connections with the authoritarian Assad regime.
However, as the Arab League meeting nears, international human rights groups and Syrian civil society organizations have all pointed out that the organization is welcoming back a government that has committed numerous human rights abuses and war crimes.
During the conflict, the Syrian regime has been accused of using poison gas on its own people.
On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture last June, the Syrian Network for Human Rights stated the Assad regime was thought to be responsible for the deaths of 14,464 torture victims over the past 11 years. This number included 174 children and 75 women.
Read more here.
