Bashar al-Assad landed in the Saudi city of Jeddah last night, ready to attend today’s Arab League summit. It is the first time Syria’s dictator has been invited to the annual meeting since its suspension in 2011, when Assad’s horrific response to largely peaceful protests led to civil war. Twelve years later, his country is in ruins. At least 500,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes. But regional leaders are welcoming Assad back into the fold – the UAE has even invited him to this year’s Cop28 climate summit in Dubai. Why? There’s no real prospect at the moment of Assad losing power, author Kim Ghattas tells the FT. Assad’s neighbours want to send refugees back to Syria and stem the export of Captagon, an amphetamine that is now a lifeline for the Assad regime. But it’s unclear if it will work – and makes a mockery of the suffering of Syrians over the past decade.
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