ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Arab leaders expressed their support for Syria and its transition at the Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, stressing the need to support its unity and territorial integrity in the face of Israeli attacks.
“We renew our fixed support for the unity of the Syrian Arab Republic, its sovereignty over its soil, and reject any attack on Syrian lands,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said.
Iraq is hosting the Arab League summit for the first time in over a decade, with discussions expected to focus on the war in Gaza and other regional developments, including the situation in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“We will not spare any effort to support our brothers in Syria, to establish a proper state and build a democratic, constitutional system through a thorough transitional process,” Sudani said.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa was invited to attend but he sent Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in his stead after protests in Iraq. On Monday night, protesters took to the streets in the Shiite-majority southern province of Basra, chanting “No, no to Jolani. No, no to terrorism,” using Sharaa’s nom de guerre.
Sudani commended United States President Donald Trump’s recent decision to lift all sanctions on Syria. “We hope that this step will contribute to alleviating the suffering of the brotherly Syrian people,” he said.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that he intends to lift the sanctions as part of a broader push to normalize relations with Damascus. "I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness," Trump declared during a speech in Saudi Arabia - the first stop on a regional tour that also included the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also lauded the lifting of sanctions.
“It is necessary to invest in the lifting of sanctions on Syria, to preserve its unity, to avoid the return of terrorism, and to call for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and other occupied Syrian lands,” Sisi said at the summit.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syria since the ousting of Assad - attacks repeatedly condemned by the new Damascus administration as a violation of its sovereignty.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who also attended the summit, called for an “inclusive, Syrian-led, and Syrian-owned political process” of transition after decades of Assad family rule.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary-general of the Arab League, said that the Arab world would stand side-by-side with Syria during its reconstruction after 13 years of civil war.
“Syria is going through a difficult stage and great challenges to build the new Syria,” Gheit said. “We will stand together with the honorable Syrian people and the government through these difficult times.”
Since taking power, the new leadership in Damascus has repeatedly called on the international community to lift Assad-era sanctions, arguing that they are hindering the country’s economic recovery and post-war reconstruction.
