Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is in Jeddah to attend the Arab League summit, met the Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday, state news media reported. 

Saudi Arabia invited Assad to attend the summit after Arab states decided to reinstate Syria's full membership of the league, following years of suspension. The 22-member bloc suspended the country in November 2011 over Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests in the bloody conflict which is estimated to have killed at least half a million people and displaced many millions more.

Leaders from Oman, Mauritania, Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, the UAE, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen also arrived in Jeddah to participate in the summit, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is also attending the summit in his first ever visit to the kingdom, "to enhance bilateral relations and Ukraine’s ties with the Arab world". He said on Twitter that "KSA plays a significant role and we are ready to take our cooperation to a new level".

(Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)

brinda.darasha@lseg.com