- [Narrator] Syrian president Bashar al-Assad
is being welcomed back into the fold
of some Arab nations after having been shunned
by most world leaders for more than a decade.
His brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011
triggered a civil war that's still going on.
(gun firing)
The conflicts led to sanctions
against the Syrian government
by its neighbors and western nations.
But in recent weeks, fueled by a devastating earthquake,
Assad has been rebuilding diplomatic ties
and asking for economic reprieve.
From walking the red carpets in Oman
to meeting Egypt's foreign minister.
Here's how Assad has shifted his image
and what it means for the Middle East.
A devastating earthquake hits Turkey and Syria in February.
While most of the casualties were in Turkey,
more than 6,000 died in Syria.
Assad's government said Western sanctions from the war
hampered its rescue efforts.
- Within hours of the earthquake taking place
there was a meeting
of top level Syrian officials in Damascus.
And the idea was now we're gonna leverage this at two level.
The first one, lobby against sanctions
for the end of sanctions, not just exemptions.
And two, we're gonna use it
as a tool to sort of get our Arab neighbors
or other Arab countries to get closer to us.
- [Narrator] The earthquake appears
to have given Assad momentum
as he seeks to capitalize on the humanitarian disaster
to reduce his isolation.
In the days following the disaster representative
of some countries, including the United Arab Emirates,
Egypt, and Jordan visited Syria.
- So really, you could see that what was already ongoing
as a repressional sort of accelerated at that stage.
- [Narrator] Assad also made only his second state visit
since 2011 to Oman,
a country that never broke ties with Damascus.
European and Arab officials said Syria's president
used the trip to lobby for the removal of Western sanctions
in return for keeping crossings
into rebel held areas in Syria open.
Assad's effort to restore ties have been building
since The Arab League, a group of 22 nations,
suspended Syria when war broke out in 2011.
(speaking foreign language)
- [Narrator] In the past few years,
the Syrian leader has beat back rebels
with the help of Russia and Iran.
Both countries remain key partners to the regime.
Assad arrived in Moscow in March
to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin
to develop cooperation between the two countries.
And Syria has been working with its neighbors
to curb the rise of terrorist groups
and the trade in the illicit drug Captagon.
- For a number of countries in the region,
there were already some kind of conversation
on counterterrorism, obviously because of the presence
of the Islamic State and other groups
affiliated or close to Al-Qaeda.
So there was already some very sort of discreet engagement.
That accelerated because of Captagon,
because of this illicit drug that started really
to flood the region from Syria into countries
like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan.
- [Narrator] Now, a deal is being brokered
between Assad and some Arab nations, including Jordan,
to help Syria more formally reintegrate.
It could benefit the region for a number of reasons.
- The prime concept is really stability.
If you have a country in the region
that is where there's no rule of law
and everything is sort of collapsed
like we had at times in Somalia or in Libya,
it has implications for the rest of of the region
and that's what they want to avoid.
I think they want to avoid another Libya.
- [Narrator] Somalia's central government has struggled
for more than a decade to contain terrorist attacks
from the Al-Qaeda linked group Al-Shabaab.
Libya has been in turmoil
since longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi
was overthrown in 2011.
For Syria, all of Assad's diplomatic efforts come
against the backdrop of the long drawn out civil war
which has spanned over 12 years.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died
and the conflict's created the world's largest
refugee crisis according to the United Nations.
But even as the war continues
and Arab countries bring Assad back into the fold,
convincing the West to ease tensions will be more difficult.
- Their sanctions program, which are not ready, again,
under this scenario to end
would be potentially an impediment for Arab reproachment.
- [Narrator] While the UN said the status quo
of isolating Syria cannot continue.
- There needs to be a coordinated international effort
in support of this
with all key players working in a coherent effort.