Members of the Arab League moved to readmit Syria after 12 years of suspension during a meeting in Cairo Sunday. It’s the latest push to reestablish ties between Arab nations and Damascus, after Syria’s Arab League membership was revoked in 2011 following President Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on protesters that drove the country into a devastating civil war, killing an estimated half-million people and displacing millions more. This is Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary-general of the Arab League.

Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit: “The return of Syria is the beginning of a movement, not an end. The direction of the resolution to the crisis in Syria will take time for procedures to be implemented, and it will be gradual. The task of this committee is to follow up on those procedures. Also, it is not a decision to resume relationships between Arab states and Syria. This is a sovereign decision left for every country to take on its own.”