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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Saudi Arabia on Friday for meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and an address to the League of Arab States, holding its summit this weekend.
The visit is the first for Zelensky to the Mideast ally since Russia, which also enjoys friendly ties to Riyadh, announced a “special operation” to oust the Ukrainian in February 2022, an ongoing invasion that began in 2014 and expanded Russia’s colonization of parts of eastern Ukraine. Zelensky has remained in power largely through large supplies of weapons and humanitarian aid from the West, but he has also succeeded in convincing Mideast and Asian states to support efforts to help Ukrainian civilians.
Saudi Arabia’s leadership has involved itself as a mediator in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, brokering a prisoner exchange last year. The Middle East has not embraced the Ukrainian cause as enthusiastically as Western Europe or East Asia, however, as several of Russia’s top allies, most prominently Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, are located there.
Assad arrived in Jeddah on Friday for his first attendance at the Arab League Summit in 12 years, having been suspended from the coalition as a result of human rights abuses during the Syrian Civil War. Assad won that war largely with support from Russia and despite American support for Syrian rebel groups – a disastrous effort that resulted in “only four or five” individuals with U.S. training fighting the Islamic State by 2015. Two years later, reports revealed the discovery of U.S. weapons in Islamic State arsenals.
Assad received an embrace from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon his arrival at the Arab League Summit on Friday:
#BREAKING: Syria’s Assad, MbS kiss & shake hands as Assad arrives to the Arab League summit – via @reuters pic.twitter.com/2YBDoF9mzk
Maya Gebeily (@GebeilyM) May 19, 2023
“I have arrived in Saudi Arabia. I will speak at the Summit of the League of Arab States. I will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and hold other bilateral talks,” Zelensky wrote in a message on his social media platforms on Friday.
Zelensky reportedly flew into the Saudi city of Jeddah, which is hosting the Arab League Summit expected to begin Friday.
