Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi believes there are enough votes for Damascus to return to body; talks will also focus on Sudan and 'recent events' in Israel, West Bank, Gaza

Rare meeting comes as some Arab countries, including regional powerhouses Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have been warming up to Damascus

Raisi, set to visit Syria amid detente with Saudis, says shifting regional alliances, along with 'unprecedented' political situation in Israel, have made Jewish state vulnerable

FM Safadi says Arab envoys discussed Syria's humanitarian needs, especially post-earthquake, plus drug smuggling and refugee crisis; won't comment on possible return to Arab League

Foreign ministers of Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt also weigh a Jordanian initiative on reaching a 'political solution to the Syrian crisis'

Iranian leader will meet with Syrian counterpart Assad on Wednesday; Tehran's envoy to Damascus calls trip a 'good event' for other countries in region

In government-held territory, residents hope rapprochement will bring trade and investment, while in opposition-held areas locals feel increasingly isolated and abandoned

Demonstrators in rebel-held city of Idlib say normalization with government will come at the expense of ties with the people

As Arab nations appear poised to welcome Bashar Assad back into the fold, a timeline of his and his father's decades of tight control and dictatorship

With leader coming out on top in civil war, Arab nations are now 'pretending that the past decade never happened,' analyst says