Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received a warm welcome upon his arrival in Jeddah to attend an Arab League Summit on May 19, 2023. In the presence of foreign delegates, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud hugged the Syrian President, indicating that al-Assad’s visit to Saudi Arabia was the new normal in West Asia. The development can be considered as a major policy shift by the Middle East, as the Arab World ignored the anti-Syria stance of the US and other Western powers. It may be noted that the Arab leaders had shunned President al-Assad for years.

Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman reportedly shook hands with al-Assad ahead of the Summit, making it clear that the Arab nations were ready to forget their enmity towards a leader who had turned the tide of Syrian Civil War with help from Shi’ite Iran and Russia.

During the Summit, the Crown Prince declared that Riyadh would play an active role on the global stage in order to ensure world peace. In the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, the Saudi leader restated his country’s readiness to mediate in the war with Russia. It may be noted that Saudi Arabia, once heavily influenced by the US, has started taking a diplomatic lead in the Arab World. Riyadh recently re-established diplomatic ties with arch-rival Iran and welcomed Syria back to the Regional Alliance, apart from mediating in the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

The Arab leaders are of the opinion that President al-Assad may take initiatives to distance Syria from Iran, as he told the Summit that his country’s “past, present and future is Arabism“. Interestingly, he did not mention Iran, although the Islamic Republic has been a close ally of Syria for decades. He even launched a verbal attack on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has backed Syrian rebels and sent Turkish forces into swathes of northern Syria. al-Assad informed the Arab leaders about the “danger of expansionist Ottoman thought“, describing it as influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group considered as a foe by Damascus and some other Arab nations.

For his part, Crown Prince bin Salman stressed that Syria’s “return to the Arab League” would lead to the end of its internal crisis. He stated that Riyadh would “not allow our region to turn into a field of conflicts“, adding that the page had been turned on “painful years of struggle“. The Arab World had snapped ties with Syria 12 years ago after the country descended into a Civil War which claimed more than 350,000 lives.

Earlier, the US urged the global community not to normalise ties with al-Assad’s Syria, saying that there must first be progress towards a political solution to the conflict. Meanwhile, a senior Saudi official, who wished to remain anonymous, told the press: “The Americans are dismayed. We (Gulf states) are people living in this region, we are trying to solve our problems as much as we can with the tools available to us in our hands.” He also said that the Arab nations could not allow Syria to become a subsidiary of Iran. “Do we want Syria to be less Arab and more Iranian, or… to come back to the Arab fold?” asked the official.

According to sources close to the Saudi Government, the Arab nations requested President al-Assad to curb the flourishing Syrian narcotics trade. President al-Assad, who rarely left Damascus after the war began, visited Iran, Russia and the United Arab Emirates in recent times. Now, he visited Saudi Arabia. Political analysts have opined that al-Assad’s return to the Arab League is part of a wider regional trend, as adversaries in West Asia have been taking steps to mend ties strained by years-long conflict and rivalry.

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Facebook

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Twitter

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Linkedin

Contact: kousdas@gmail.com

Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das