According to the Syrian presidency, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s acting president, was invited to an Arab League meeting on Gaza hosted by Egypt on Sunday.
“The president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Mr Ahmed al-Sharaa, received an official invitation from the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt… to participate in the extraordinary Arab League summit” on March 4 in Cairo, the presidency statement said.
Trump’s plan to transform the war-torn Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East” received a lot of criticism, prompting the meeting.
Trump’s plan calls for its Palestinian residents to relocate, maybe to Egypt or Jordan.
Other foreign leaders and Arab states expressed outrage over Trump’s plan, and the UN issued a warning against “ethnic cleansing” in Palestinian land.
Sharaa has called Trump’s plan “a very huge crime that cannot happen”.
Syria under former president Bashar al-Assad was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over his brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests which spiralled into a devastating war.
Damascus was allowed to return to the regional bloc in 2023.
In a quick onslaught late last year, Assad was overthrown by a coalition commanded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist organization affiliated with Sharaa. Soon after, he was appointed interim president.
Although Egypt has been cautious in its dealings with Syria since his downfall, it supported Assad until the very end, even as Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham drew closer to Damascus.
Sharaa would represent Syria in the Arab League for the first time at the Cairo summit next month.
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