2023-05-19 18:32:28
At Jeddah airport, two men who could hardly be more different traveled to the Arab League summit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy landed in the Saudi coastal city on Friday. A statesman highly esteemed in the West, whose country has been successfully defending itself against a Russian war of aggression for more than a year.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had arrived earlier. A Russian-sponsored dictator and staunch supporter of the invasion of Ukraine. For the West, Assad is a pariah who would rather be tried for mass murder and the use of poison gas against civilians than at an international summit.
The invitation to the unequal heads of state is a clear sign that the Arab states are in the process of going their own way. High officials have repeatedly emphasized the need to find “Arab solutions” to the region’s problems without foreign interference. During the preparatory meeting, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, invoked Arab unity and inventiveness.
Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in Jeddah on Friday
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Image: dpa
Saudi Arabia has long been acting with a self-confident stubbornness and egotism that repeatedly arouses resentment in Western capitals because, as in the case of Assad, it runs counter to Western interests. The kingdom takes the position that it can have good relations with Washington, Moscow and China because it is not a zero-sum game. In the Ukraine war, Riyadh tries to make a name for itself as a mediator. It is said to have been instrumental in a prisoner exchange in September.
Zelenskyj praised the important role of the kingdom on Twitter and announced that he wanted to take the cooperation “to a new level”. “Our priorities are the return of our political prisoners from Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories, the return of all prisoners and illegally deported,” Zelenskyy wrote. He also wanted to present the Ukrainian peace formula, for the implementation of which as many states as possible would have to be consulted. He is also concerned with the “guarantee of energy security next winter”.
During his appearance in the conference room, the Ukrainian President, who wanted to meet Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, among others, found words whose frankness is unusual in the circle of Arab autocrats: “Unfortunately, some in the world and here in your circle are turning a blind eye ‘ he said, referring to Ukrainians in Russian prisons and illegal annexations of Ukrainian territory. He demanded that the Arab world must help protect the Ukrainian people, especially the Muslims living there. “I’m here so that everyone can have an honest look – no matter how much the Russians try to influence them.” The Ukrainians did not want the war. They merely pushed back occupiers.
Assad celebrates his triumph
While the pictures of the arrival showed a mostly serious Ukrainian president, his Syrian adversary was overjoyed at his diplomatic triumph. Assad clearly enjoyed being treated like a normal president in Jeddah, including a warm welcome from the Saudi Crown Prince. But the issues that are central to Syria show the opposite: the production and smuggling of the drug Captagon to the Gulf, in which the Syrian regime is significantly implicated, and the return of the millions who did and did not flee Assad and the war want back
There is also continued distrust in some Arab leaderships, in Doha for example: “For Qatar, Assad is someone who cannot be trusted and with whom one cannot work,” said an Arab diplomat about the Qatari position. In the end, the pressure on Doha from those who wanted to normalize relations with Syria was too great, and the importance of the Arab League for Qatar was too small. The western allies of the Ukrainian president had also done little to prevent Assad from arriving. However, Zelenskyj managed to spoil his fun a bit. When addressing Russian crimes, Assad looked not satisfied but annoyed.
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