DUBAI, September 9. /TASS/. Members countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, stand for preserving Syria’s territorial integrity and respecting its independence, according to a joint statement issued after the GCC ministerial meeting in Riyadh.

"The Ministerial Council affirmed its firm positions towards preserving the territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic, respecting its independence and sovereignty over its territory, rejecting regional interference in its internal affairs, supporting the efforts of the United Nations to reach a political solution in Syria in line with Security Council Resolution 2254 and relevant United Nations resolutions, supporting the efforts of its Special Envoy for Syria (Geir Pedersen), supporting efforts to care for Syrian refugees and displaced persons, and working towards their voluntary and safe return to Syria, in accordance with international standards, and rejecting any attempts to make demographic changes in Syria," the document reads.

Three ministerial meetings were held in Riyadh on Monday, including a session of the Russia-GCC Strategic Dialogue, which was attended by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. On the sideline of the event, the top Russian diplomat held a series of bilateral meetings, including with Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud, that country’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, as well as with top Indian diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira, who arrived in Riyadh to participate in separate meetings with GCC ministers.

When a civil war broke out in Syria, the majority of Arab countries, having failed to press Damascus to make any concessions to the opposition, recalled their ambassadors from Syria and joined the economic boycott of that country. During the period of the civil war, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries supported Syria’s anti-government armed opposition both financially and militarily. In recent years, several GCC countries, including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, have resumed diplomatic relations with Damascus.

On May 19, 2023, Syrian President Bashar Assad attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah, for the first time since 2010. Shortly before the summit, the Arab League Council made a decision to reinstate Syria’s full-fledged membership, which was suspended in November 2011.