After years of isolation, Assad welcomed at Arab summit
Jeddah parley showcases Saudi efforts to be a global player
jEDDAH (Reuters) – syrian president Bashar Assad was given a warm welcome at an Arab summit on Friday, winning a hug from saudi Arabia’s crown prince at a meeting of leaders who had shunned him for years, in a policy shift opposed by the Us and other western powers.
saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman shook hands with a beaming Assad as the summit got underway in jeddah, turning the page on enmity toward a leader who drew on support from shi’ite Iran and Russia to beat back his foes in syria’s civil war.
the summit showcased redoubled saudi efforts to exercise influence on the global stage, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in attendance and crown prince mohammed restating Riyadh’s readiness to mediate in the war with Russia.
oil powerhouse saudi Arabia, once heavily influenced by the United states, has taken the diplomatic lead in the Arab world in the past year, re-establishing ties with Iran, welcoming syria back to the fold, and mediating in the sudan conflict.
with many Arab states hoping Assad will now take steps to distance syria from shi’ite Iran, Assad said the country’s “past, present, and future is Arabism,” but without mentioning tehran – for decades a close syrian ally.
In an apparent swipe at turkish president tayyip Erdogan,
who has backed syrian rebels and sent turkish forces into northern syria, Assad noted the “danger of expansionist ottoman thought,” describing it as influenced by the muslim Brotherhood – an Islamist group seen as a foe by Damascus and many other Arab states.
crown prince mohammed said he hoped syria’s “return to the Arab League leads to the end of its crisis,” 12 years after Arab states suspended syria as it descended into a civil war that has killed more