The Latest Breaking News from Bashar alAssad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will attend an Arab League summit Friday in Saudi Arabia, his top diplomat said, a first in more than a decade of war and regional isolation.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a pariah for more than a decade, is expected to steal the spotlight at Friday's Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia, where he will rub shoulders with regional leaders who once backed his war foes.

The talks are taking place as Syria mends ties with regional powers after more than a decade of isolation.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received an invitation to next week's Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the presidency said Wednesday, the first such invitation since the country's war began.

A video said to show Syrian President Bashar al-Assad walking without escort through a joyous crowd in Damascus has been circulating online since April 25. However, this is an old video and one that actually shows the president during an orchestrated event in a secure location.

Saudi Arabia will reopen its diplomatic mission in Syria, the Saudi foreign ministry said on Tuesday, nearly a decade after diplomatic ties were cut and two days after Syria was readmitted into the Arab League.

Residents and members of the country’s political opposition alike are angered at the Arab League’s decision.

Having brought President Bashar al-Assad in from the cold, Arab states want him to rein in Syria's flourishing drugs trade in exchange for even closer ties. But as Damascus makes its own demands, the way ahead appears far from simple.

The drug, often smuggled to Gulf states, has been a key topic in discussions over Syria’s re-entry to the Arab League.