President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine urged Arab leaders meeting in Saudi Arabia on Friday not to succumb to Russian influence, as he continued his diplomatic tour to build international support ahead of a widely anticipated counterattack by Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky made a surprise visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to attend the annual summit of the Arab League, where he addressed countries that have maintained warm relations with Russia. In his speech, Mr Zelensky called on the authorities – some of whom oversaw massacres and imprisoned dissidents – to help save Ukrainians “from the cages of Russian prison”.
“Unfortunately, there are some people in the world, and here among you, who have turned a blind eye to those cages and illegal takeovers,” he said. “I’m here to give people an honest look, no matter how the Russians try to influence them.”
His remarks seem to highlight in particular that for the first time in more than a decade, Arab leaders have welcomed the return of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who relies heavily on military support. Russia to wage war against its own people. He has been largely shunned, regionally and internationally, since 2011, when he began violently suppressing the Arab Spring uprising in Syria, using chemical weapons against his own people. at some point during the civil war killing hundreds of thousands of people.
Despite pressure from the United States, many Arab countries have avoided taking sides since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine nearly 15 months ago, saying they do not want to take sides. drag into a contest between the superpowers and must be able to pursue their own interests.
Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has emerged as a wartime harbor for wealthy Russians, while the Emirate’s capital, Abu Dhabi, hosted a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States at the end of last year.
Saudi officials have managed to maintain good relations with both sides in the conflict. They pledged $400 million in aid to Ukraine even as they coordinated with Russia and other oil producers in the OPEC Plus group to raise energy prices, angering American officials.
“All Arab countries have had a good relationship with Ukraine since before this crisis, and similarly, we look forward to maintaining our relationship with Russia,” said Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said at a press conference after the summit. war that we must find an end to, and that would not have happened without a willingness to listen to all sides and all voices.”
Mr Zelensky was invited by Saudi Arabia to the summit, where he met the kingdom’s leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – commonly known by his initials MBS – and thanked him for his support. The Ukrainian leader is expected to appear at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, later this week to seek further pledges of arms and aid from the world’s wealthiest democracies. world, amid a series of trips aimed at building support ahead of the expected counterattack.
The invitation comes at a time when Prince Mohammed, 37, is looking for a new role for himself on the international stage, presenting himself as a bridge and peacemaker. When the prince came to power in 2015, he pursued an aggressive foreign policy, including disastrous military intervention in neighboring Yemen has contributed to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
But his approach was transfer towards de-escalating the conflict over the past few years, as he focused on plans to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy.
In March, the Saudi government announced it would re-establish diplomatic ties with its longtime rival, Iran, and this month Saudi officials held talks between the warring parties in Sudan. .
“MBS is determined to put Saudi Arabia back into a regional and even global leadership position – at the center of it all,” said Kristin Diwan, senior resident scholar at the Institute of Arab Gulf States in Washington. “The Saudis have everything in their hands at the moment.”
The diplomatic boom underscores Prince Mohammed’s efforts to cement the kingdom’s status as a rising power, cementing greater independence from the United States, the kingdom’s longtime security patron. This.
Addressing leaders on Friday, Prince Mohammed told Saudi Arabia’s “friends in the West and East” that the kingdom is focused on peace. He said they were committed to defuse the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and were “ready to continue working on reconciliation efforts between Russia and Ukraine.”
For Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political scientist from the Emirate, Mr Zelensky’s arrival carries many messages. One is the possibility for Russia: “Enough is enough. Let’s end the war,” he said. At the same time, the Gulf countries want their US and European allies to know that “our balanced view of the war between Russia and Ukraine does not mean that we are on the side of Russia,” he said.
Mr. Zelenskiy speak that another priority for his meetings with Arab leaders was to discuss the security of Ukrainian Muslims, including Crimean Tatarsa long marginalized group that the Russian homeland has occupied since 2014. It is an example of how Mr. Zelensky has sought to tailor your message to a foreign audience in war.
“Look how much suffering the long wars have brought to Libya, Syria, Yemen,” he said. “How many lives were wasted in years of fighting in Sudan and Somalia, in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Zelensky’s appearance also quickly drew attention away from the meeting’s most controversial guest, Mr. al-Assad.
Russian military support was key to al-Assad’s survival in Syria’s civil war, and Russian forces have employed tactics in Syria, including attacks against civilian targetsthat they worked in Ukraine.
Mr. al-Assad appeared to have received a warm welcome on Friday, when Saudi state television showed Prince Mohammed greeting him with kisses on the cheek. When the prince came to power in 2015, the war in Syria was still raging, and Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with al-Assad and backed some rebels against him. .
However, earlier this month, Saudi Arabia re-established diplomatic relations with Syria and the Arab League voted to accept the country back, formalizing al-Assad’s reintegration into the region. area.
Arab officials supporting his return argue that boycotting him has not achieved much and that in this way, at least, they can hope to influence developments in Syria that affect across the region, such as the cross-border flow of illegal drugs and the fate of Syrian refugees in the Neighboring Countries.
“The status quo is unsustainable,” said Prince Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister. “We are interested in finding practical and practical solutions, and this will not happen unless we cooperate and cooperate with the government in Damascus.”
In his speech, Prince Mohammed said he was delighted that Mr. al-Assad was welcome back to the federation.
“We hope that will help support the stability of Syria and get things back to normal,” he said.
Mr. al-Assad’s return to the region has been met with widespread criticism, including from Syrians who oppose his rule and a group of US congressmen who have introduced a bill called The Assad Anti-Normalization Act. Many in the Middle East are also uncomfortable with the idea of re-legalizing a leader accused of war crimes.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar – which openly opposes normalizing relations with Syria – left the summit on Friday without speaking, in what appeared to be a protest. the presence of Mr. al-Assad.
When it was his turn to speak, Mr. al-Assad used his few minutes to criticize “Western domination, without principles, morality, friends and partners”. The emergence of a multipolar world, he said, is “a historic opportunity to rearrange our affairs with the least amount of foreign interference.”
“The most important thing is to leave internal affairs to their own people, because they can manage their own,” he said.
Hwaida Saad contribution report from Beirut, Raja Abdulrahim from Jerusalem and Vivian Yee from Cairo.
