Syria will host the Arab energy conference in 2024 after all members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) agreed, a statement by the Oil and Mineral Resources ministry said on Thursday. The decision was agreed to during a virtual meeting of oil ministers from the member countries hosted by Kuwait. The meeting agreed that Syria will host the meeting in 2024 after Qatar in 2023 and that Syria will chair the council of Arab oil ministers for a year starting 2022 to succeed current chair Saudi Arabia. OAPEC comprises Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. This came as Arab countries started recently to gradually improve relations with Syria following a decade of bad ties after the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. Some countries, such as the UAE, Oman, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, have maintained shy relations with Damascus before resuming public activities this year in line with efforts to return Syria to the Arab League. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed visited Damascus in November and met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad is also due in Tehran on Sunday for a two-day visit. Meanwhile, Syrians suffer from a severe crisis caused by poor access to energy. They are deprived of their country’s oil production due to the US-backed “Syrian Democratic Forces” control over the country’s oil fields. Damascus accuses Washington of looting Syrian oil. Syria currently produces around 24,000 barrels a day, covering only a fraction of domestic needs. Most of its oil fields are in the hands of Kurdish-led forces, who administer an autonomous region in the country’s northeast. Assad’s government has relied on a top ally, Iran, for oil supplies. In recent weeks, a deal was signed with Egypt to extend natural gas through Syria to Lebanon using an Arab oil pipeline that has been out of service for a decade.