Assad's Visit to Saudi Arabia Marks Syria's Return to Arab League

The Arab League summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, offers Saudi Arabia a platform to showcase its growing role as a mediator as it resists pressure to pick sides in the larger competition for power between the United States and Russia. Syria's return to the Arab League this year reflects a much larger realignment shaping the region after Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic ties in a deal brokered by China. The United States, which maintains several hundred counterterrorism forces in Syria's northwest, has refused to restore ties with the Assad regime and publicly opposes Arab states doing so.