novaBBS - rec.aviation.military - Syria's Assad wins warm welcome at Arab summit after years of isolation

The USA had Arab friends and Arab opponents. Then out of a sense
of "wokeness" we said we would make one of our best friends a
'paraiah'. He has grown less friendly. Our influence is getting
weaker. Other opponents of ours are getting assistance.
How can we be surprised?

from
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrias-assad-attend-arab-summit-bringing-regional-isolation-an-end-2023-05-19/

Syria's Assad wins warm welcome at Arab summit after years of isolation
By Aziz El Yaakoubi and Samia Nakhoul

[10/10] Syria's President Bashar al-Assad arrives in Jeddah, to attend
the Arab League summit the following day, Saudi Arabia, May 18, 2023.
Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS

Summary
Assad returns to the Arab fold
Syrian leader was ostracised over crackdown, war
U.S. opposed to policy shift
Ukraine's Zelenskiy visits summit
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, May 19 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar
al-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 U.S. and other
Western powers.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shook hands with a beaming Assad
as the summit got underway, drawing a line under Arab enmity towards a
leader who turned the tide of Syria's civil war with help from Shi'ite
Iran and Russia.

The summit showcased redoubled Saudi Arabia efforts to exercise sway on
the global stage, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy 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 swathes of 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 than 350,000
people.

Saudi Arabia would "not allow our region to turn into a field of
conflicts", he said, saying the page had been turned on "painful years
of struggle".

Washington has objected to any steps towards normalisation with Assad,
saying there must first be progress towards a political solution to the
conflict.

"The Americans are dismayed. We (Gulf states) are people living in this
region, we're trying to solve our problems as much as we can with the
tools available to us in our hands," said a Gulf source close to
government circles.

A Gulf analyst told Reuters that Syria risked becoming a subsidiary of
Iran, and asked: "Do we want Syria to be less Arab and more Iranian, or
.... to come back to the Arab fold?"

Having welcomed back Assad, Arab states also want him to curb a
flourishing Syrian trade in narcotics, which are being produced in Syria
and smuggled across the region.

UKRAINE
Addressing the summit, Zelenskiy, who wants to build support for Kyiv's
battle against Russian invaders, asked the delegates to support
Ukraine's formula for peace and thanked Riyadh for its role in mediating
a prisoner release last year.

Gulf states have tried to remain neutral in the Ukraine conflict despite
Western pressure on Gulf oil producers to help isolate Russia, a fellow
OPEC+ member.

Arab leaders attending included Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani, who said in 2018 the region could not tolerate "a war
criminal" like Assad. Sheikh Tamim left abruptly before addressing the
summit. Qatar reluctantly withdrew its opposition to Riyadh's initiative
to readmit Syria earlier this month.

The Syrian state news agency said he shook hands with Assad, though an
Arab official said Tamim left before Assad's speech and his visit was "a
courtesy" and did not involve bilaterals.

The war has shattered Syria's economy, demolishing infrastructure,
cities and factories. Assad could benefit from Gulf investment in his
battered country, though U.S. sanctions complicate any commercial ties
with Damascus.

The Arab rapprochement with Assad gained momentum after China negotiated
an agreement in March that saw Riyadh resume diplomatic ties with Iran,
which with Russia has helped Assad defeat Sunni rebels and regain
control of some major cities.

A large swathe of Syria, however, remains under Turkish-backed rebels
and radical Islamist groups as well as a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia.

Finding a political solution to the 12-year-old conflict remains a big
dilemma for Arab and Western countries.

According to UNHCR since 2011, more than 14 million Syrians have been
forced to flee their homes. About 6.8 million Syrians remain internally
displaced in their own country where 90 percent of the population live
below the poverty line.

About 5.5 million Syrian refugees live in the five neighbouring
countries - Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Ahead of the summit, the U.S. State Department reiterated opposition to
normalisation of relations with Damascus and said sanctions should not
be lifted.

But State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel added that "we
have a number of shared objectives" such as bringing home Austin Tice, a
former U.S. marine and journalist who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012.

Then U.S. President Donald Trump branded an "animal" for using chemical
weapons in 2018 - a weapon he consistently denied using. Assad rarely
left Syria after the war began, going only to Iran and Russia until
2022, when he visited the United Arab Emirates - his first trip to an
Arab country since 2011.

Salem Al-Meslit, a prominent figure in the Syrian political opposition
to Assad, wrote on Twitter that his attendance was a "free reward for a
war criminal".

Assad's return to the Arab fold is part of a wider trend in the Middle
East where adversaries have been taking steps to mend ties strained by
years of conflict and rivalry.

Additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington; Writing by Michael
Georgy; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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