Arab League to reinstate Syria; U.S. opposes

May 7 (UPI) -- Arab League members agreed Sunday to reinstate Syria back into its coalition and urged the country to take action to end its nearly 12-year civil war.

The league ousted Syria in 2011 after President Bashar al-Assad's strong-armed response to protesters sank the nation into a civil war. Member states have pushed for bringing Syria back to the table in recent months.

During Sunday's meeting in Egypt, the member states came to an agreement to readmit Syria while calling for the Assad regime to take corrective measures on its interior and exterior conflicts, as well as rampant drug smuggling from the nation, Axios reports.

Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the decision, emphasizing the importance of "joint action" on issues in Arab countries.

"Syria has received with interest the decision of the Council of the League of Arab States regarding the resumption of the participation of delegations of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic in the meetings of the Council of the League and all its affiliated organizations and agencies as of today, and in this context stresses the importance of dialogue and joint action to confront the challenges facing the Arab countries," it said in a statement on Twitter.

In a call Thursday with Ayman Safadi, Jordan's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States does not support normalizing relations with Assad, according to a press release.

"Secretary Blinken made clear that the United States will not normalize relations with the Assad regime and does not support others normalizing until there is authentic, U.N.-facilitated political progress in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution," the statement reads.

"The secretary emphasized the importance of coordinating with the UN Special Envoy for Syria, underscoring that UNSCR 2254 is the only viable solution to ending the war."

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary-general of the Arab League, clarified that individual member states will determine how they proceed with their individual relationships with Syria, if resuming those relationships at all. He also noted that seeking a resolution to the crisis in Syria will be gradual, BBC reports.

In 2022, the U.N. Human Rights Office estimated that more than 306,000 civilians had been killed during the first 10 years of Syria's civil war.

"And let me be clear: these are the people killed as a direct result of war operations," Michelle Bachelet, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement. "This does not include the many, many more civilians who died due to the loss of access to healthcare, to food, to clean water and other essential human rights, which remain to be assessed."