Syria's road to reintegration: Obstacles, conditions, and challenges ahead

Carrying with him a comprehensive settlement package, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after a complete diplomatic rupture that lasted over 11 years between the two sides. 

Suppose Assad's answers are pending for days or even months to come. In that case, Syria's return to the Arab fold faces several obstacles until now, the most prominent of which are:

First, the refusal of some Arab countries, including Qatar, Morocco, Jordan, and Kuwait, each of which cites its reasons ranging from the necessity of the regime's dealing with the opposition to the refusal to engage with Assad.

Second, the US dissatisfaction with the openness to Damascus, as Washington informed Riyadh and Tel Aviv of its opposition to any efforts to reintegrate Assad into the Arab League, according to Republican senior lawmaker Lindsey Graham in an interview with Al Arabiya, which came days after he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah.

Third, the comprehensive solution package proposed by Riyadh to Damascus to pave the way for the return. 

The package mentioned in the statement of the Syrian Foreign Minister's visit to Saudi Arabia, as well as the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting and then the Saudi minister's visit to Damascus, includes drug trafficking as one of the main points for Saudi Arabia in its negotiations with Assad, as the drug trade has become the economic lifeline for the Assad regime and has reached Saudi Arabia.

What Riyadh also publicly demands is the need to prepare the conditions for the safe return of Syrian refugees to their areas, as well as the application of a comprehensive political road map, while the presence of Iran in Damascus remains another obstacle to Syria's readmission to the Arab League.

In this context, the Financial Times says that the countries opposing the return of Syria asked Saudi Arabia at the recent Jeddah meeting: Assad has done nothing to rehabilitate his regime; what have you then extracted from him?

Given all of the above, will the Assad regime meet these conditions, and does he have the key to solving them, or are some of them in the hands of his regional allies?

Will he succeed in stopping the drug trade? Will he accept negotiating and including the Syrian opposition in the comprehensive solution? Will he accept opening the door for the return of refugees without conditions or threats that impede their return? Can he remove Iranian forces from his country?

If the Syrian regime achieves all of these demands, will the countries that are normalizing relations with it succeed in bypassing the Caesar Act imposed by the United States on those who deal with Damascus?