Syria is expected to rejoin the Arab League soon, but faces many challenges in resolving the crisis and ending the armed conflict that broke out there in 2011, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said today.

Syria was kicked out of the pan-Arab body in 2011 because of its harsh crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, the trigger for the war.

According to Mr. Safadi, the majority of the 22 member states of the Arab League are in favor of the reintegration of Damascus into the international organization.

“The return to [Αραβικό] A link will be made. From a symbolic point of view it will be important, but this will only be the very humble beginning of a very long and difficult process full of challenges, given the complexity of the crisis after 12 years of war,” the head of Jordanian diplomacy explained to CNN.

A representative of the Arab League said yesterday Thursday that Arab ministers will meet tomorrow Saturday in Cairo to discuss Syria, against the background of mobility in the region in the direction of normalizing relations with the Assad government.

Several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have recently resumed diplomatic contacts – visits, high-level meetings – but others, notably Qatar, oppose full normalization before the crisis is settled.

In Amman on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad met for the first time in years with his Arab counterparts, as part of a Jordanian initiative to promote an Arab peace plan.

The plan to end the armed conflict is expected to include solutions to the issues of refugees, missing prisoners, drug trafficking and the presence of Iran’s military and Tehran-backed paramilitary groups on Syrian territory.

In Mr. Safadi’s view, if Damascus demonstrates political will and real progress is made to resolve the crisis, it will win the support of the Arab world, which will take initiatives to lift Western sanctions, a major obstacle to the start of the rebuilding its damaged infrastructure.