Egypt is pushing Tunisia to invite embattled President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit to take place in the North African country in March though Tunis denied last month that it extended an invitation to the Syrian leader, The New Arab reports. The London-based media’s Arabic edition Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui met with Egyptian President AbdelFattah al-Sisi on Saturday concluding a series of meetings with Egyptian officials to discuss Assad participation. Syria was expelled out of the Arab League in 2011 in the wake of the beginning of the civil war over Bashar’s crackdown on demonstrators seeking to topple the Baath regime, in power since 1963. The UAE and Bahrain last month announce normalization of ties Syria. Tunis last month denied reports that it would hold talks on inviting Bash al-Assad to March Arab League gathering.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 07, 2019 15:22 UTC