JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Dispatches) -- 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, in a policy shift opposed by the U.S. and other Western powers.
Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad 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 war on foreign-backed takfiri terrorism with help from Iran and Russia.
The summit featured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in attendance and Crown Prince Muhammad 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.
In an apparent swipe at Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has backed militants and sent Turkish forces into swathes of northern Syria, Assad noted the “danger of expansionist Ottoman thought”.
Washington has objected to any steps towards normalization with Assad, saying there must first be progress towards a political solution to the conflict.
The Arab rapprochement with Assad gained momentum after China negotiated an agreement in March that saw Riyadh resume diplomatic ties with Iran.
Leading U.S. magazine Newsweek termed Assad’s visit to Saudi Arabia as the “biggest blow” that President Joe Biden has received when it comes to his anti-Syria policies.
The publication cited the Syrian Mission to the United Nations urging Washington to end its illegal military presence in Syria and lift sanctions against the country.
The United States, maintained the mission, “must abandon its hostile policies towards Syria, start withdrawing its forces from Syrian territory, and stop supporting illegal militias and terrorist entities.”
“The economic crisis and the huge inflation that the Americans are suffering from requires that they stop wasting taxpayers’ money on establishing illegal military bases in Syria under pretexts that have been proven false such as defending U.S. national security thousands of miles away from Washington,” it said.
The mission also urged the U.S. to “initiate the immediate lifting of the coercive measures imposed on the Syrians, which constitute collective punishment for them and the biggest obstacle to improving the humanitarian and living conditions, and providing basic services such as electricity, water and health care”, Newsweek said.
Newsweek cited a State Department spokesperson as saying that “our sanctions remain in full effect, and they will not be loosened absent a resolution of the underlying conflict...”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken explicitly rejected the recent developments bringing Assad back into the Arab fold when he told a press conference that “we do not believe that Syria merits readmission to the Arab League”.
“It’s a point we’ve made to all of our regional partners, but they have to make their own decisions,” Blinken said.
And yet, he said the Biden administration continues to “have shared goals when it comes to Syria with our partners”.
“So, I think the Arab perspective, as articulated through the Arab League, is they believe that they can pursue these objectives through more direct engagement,” Blinken stated. “We may have a different perspective when it comes to that, but the objectives that we have I think are the same. So, that’s where the focus is.”
Assad has already visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman and is expected to visit other Arab states as well in the near future.