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JEDDAH, May 19 (AP) — Saudi Arabia hosted an Arab League summit on Friday as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelens after a 12-year suspension. Key’s surprise visit to rally support for Russia.
Russian airstrikes have wreaked havoc in both countries, but in Syria the strikes came at Assad’s invitation and helped keep him in power amid years of civil war.
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Several other Arab countries maintain friendly relations with Moscow while remaining largely neutral on the Ukraine war.
The odd pairing of the two leaders at the same forum is the result of a series of recent diplomatic moves by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is bringing the oil-rich kingdom with him in previous confrontations with its main rival. The same dynamism of Iran seeks regional reconciliation.
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Saudi Arabia has restored diplomatic ties with Iran in recent months, ending the kingdom’s years-long war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen and spearheading a push for Syria to return to the 22-nation Arab coalition.
The Saudi crown prince welcomed Assad and Zelensky to the Red Sea city of Jeddah, expressing support for “anything that helps reduce the crisis between Russia and Ukraine”.
The Saudis, which brokered a prisoner exchange last year, “are ready to mediate,” he added.
Speaking at the summit in English, Zelensky appeared to invoke the Arab world’s own history of invasion and occupation, saying their countries would understand that Ukraine “will never submit to any foreigner or colonizer. This is why we fight.” .”
He blasted Iran for supplying Russia with attack drones and spoke of the plight of Muslim Tatars living in Russian-occupied Crimea.
He also accused some in the hall of “turning a blind eye” to Russian violations, without naming them.
The visit comes amid a whirlwind of international travel for the Ukrainian leader, but so far he has mainly visited allies.
Saudi Arabia earlier this year pledged $400 million in aid to Ukraine and voted for a U.N. resolution calling on Russia to halt its invasion and oppose the annexation of Ukrainian territory.
But it has resisted U.S. pressure to boost oil production to squeeze Russian revenues.
Assad, who remains a close ally of Russia and Iran, said he hoped the summit would mark the beginning of “a new phase of Arab unity to achieve peace, development and prosperity in our region, not war and destruction,” he added. Arab states should reject “external interference” in their affairs, he said.
In recent years, Assad’s forces have retaken much of Syria from the rebels, with significant help from Russia (which has intervened militarily on his behalf since 2015) and Iran.
Saudi Arabia, which had been the main sponsor of the opposition at the height of the war, retreated as the rebels finally pushed into a small area in northwestern Syria.
“Saudi Arabia’s push to bring Syria back into the mix is part of a broader shift in the way the country handles regional politics,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, a principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.
“The adventurous foreign policy previously defined by Yemen’s intervention and efforts to counter Iran is now being abandoned in favor of a more cautious approach,” he said.
Assad’s first official meeting on Friday was with his Tunisian counterpart, Keith Saeed, who is cracking down on dissent at the birthplace of the Arab Spring protests that swept the region in 2011.
“We stand together against the dark movement,” Assad said, apparently referring to the extremist group that has taken control of the Syrian opposition as the country’s civil war erupted and has recruited a large number of recruits from Tunisia.
The crown prince then welcomed each leader to the summit, including a smiling Assad in a dark blue suit. The two shook hands and kissed cheeks before the Syrian leader walked into the hall.
Some Arab states oppose Damascus’ revival, including gas-rich Qatar, which still supports the Syrian opposition and says it will not normalize bilateral ties without a political solution to the conflict.
The West still regards Assad’s forces as a pariah for aerial bombing and gas attacks on civilians by his forces during the 12-year civil war, criticizing his return to Arab states and vowing to maintain draconian sanctions that stand in the way of reconstruction.
Entire villages and neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble after years of fierce fighting between Assad’s army, rebels and jihadist groups such as the Islamic State.
The conflict has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
U.S. lawmakers this week advanced bipartisan legislation that would bar any U.S. federal agency from recognizing or establishing normal relations with the Syrian government so long as it is led by Assad, who came to power in 2000 after the death of his father.
The legislation would also close existing U.S. sanctions loopholes against Assad and require Washington to develop a formal strategy to counter efforts by countries to normalize relations with his administration.
The White House National Security Council said in a statement Friday that the administration opposed the legislation.
It fears that these additional measures “will make it too difficult to deliver humanitarian aid to the Syrian people suffering from the actions of the Assad regime.”
The government remains committed to a UN Security Council resolution passed in 2015 that endorsed a road map for peace drafted three years ago.
But years of fruitless rounds of talks between Assad’s government and the opposition have given him little incentive to compromise with the embattled rebels since Russia entered the war eight years ago.
Arab leaders appear to be focused on more moderate goals, such as enlisting Assad to help fight militant groups and drug dealers and returning Syrian refugees to their homes. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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