Qatar emir skips Assad's Arab League speech in Saudi Arabia
The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt publicly praised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s participation in the summit after Syria was readmitted to the Arab League.
Arab leaders gathered in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Friday for the annual Arab League summit. Many of them welcomed Syria’s participation, which resumed for the first time in a decade, but Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani notably did not attend the speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and left the summit beforehand, seemingly in protest.
Sheikh Tamim arrived in Jeddah on Friday morning, a day after the Syrian leader. Assad addressed the summit at around 1 pm local time with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, the State of Palestine and other member states in the audience.
However, at almost the exact time Assad began his speech, the official Qatar News Agency reported that the Qatari Emir had left Jeddah.
