Reuters said that Qatar reluctantly withdrew its opposition to the initiative to return Syria to the Arab League, noting that Doha, despite its opposition to normalization with Damascus, announced that it would not stand in the way of Arab consensus.
The agency believed that the Arab countries’ welcome to Syria’s return to the League highlights the extent of Qatar’s decline in its efforts to be a weighty diplomatic voice in the Middle East.
The analysis indicated that the dissatisfaction with the return of Damascus to the Arab League was evident in the diplomatic mission of the Syrian opposition group in Doha, which Qatar recognizes as an official embassy, and reminds of the extent of the change in Qatari policy.
The agency believed that Qatar decided not to prevent Syria’s return to the Arab League, because Doha is striving to build consensus in the Gulf and the wider Arab region through constructive dialogue that does not harm its foreign policy.
With the loss of the anti-Assad movement in Syria, “the Arab countries changed their politics dramatically, but Qatar did not,” said Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar.
