Western capitals honor one man for resisting Russia’s extensive invasion of his nation.
The other is universally despised for crimes against his own people during a conflict that has rendered him reliant on Moscow.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, and Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, were both present in the same conference room at the Arab League summit on Friday.
This was a powerful indication of Saudi Arabia’s aspirations to become a major diplomatic power in the world.
Analysts claim that the unlikely meeting in Jeddah appeared to be intended to demonstrate the influence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was himself in the international spotlight less than five years ago for the murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.
“A major objective of the Saudi leadership is to portray the crown prince as an essential figure in the evolving geopolitical landscape,” said Kristian Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University.
Prince Mohammed’s post-Khashoggi isolation has “definitively ended,” he continued, and the Saudis are now “seeking to demonstrate that they can bridge gaps that others cannot hope to.”
Although there were no ground-breaking agreements reached at the discussions on Friday, Riyadh deserves credit for a peaceful event in which tensions resulting from the attendance of both Assad and Zelensky were covered, at least for the day.
‘Consensus’ on Syria?
Assad’s trip in Saudi Arabia occurred after a protracted buildup: the foreign ministers of the two nations had recently swapped visits and made public preparations to rebuild diplomatic missions closed in 2012, when Riyadh severed connections as Syria’s crisis deteriorated.
The larger regional embrace began at least in 2018, when the United Arab Emirates reestablished ties with Damascus and took the initiative to help Assad get better.
Though some Arab leaders have expressed reluctance to accept Assad back into the fold, there are still doubts about how Assad will be treated on Friday.
“It’s all about Bashar al-Assad,” Middle East expert Hussein Ibish said as the meetings got underway.
“If he is cooperative and doesn’t rub their faces in it, then the inevitable — no matter how distasteful — readmittance of his victorious regime will proceed ‘normally’.”
Assad ultimately praised Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of a nation that had earlier accused him of being the “killing machine” behind it.
The Arab League, a body that previously permitted Syria’s opposition to take up his country’s official seat, was not enraged by Assad’s arguments against “external interference” in member nations’ affairs.
According to Syrian state media, Assad even spoke with and shook hands with the emir of Qatar, a bitter opponent of Assad whose nation has demanded justice for “war crimes” committed in Syria.
However, if Assad’s reintegration ignores problems with Syrian refugees and the captagon trade, these gestures do not suggest the Syria debate is over.
“Bringing Assad back into the Arab fold has produced disagreements, most notably with Qatar,” said Kristin Diwan of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “Yet Saudi Arabia will relish taking the lead and imposing an Arab consensus.”
‘Global player’
Zelensky’s appearance in Jeddah was more openly confrontational, with the Ukrainian leader accusing some Arab heads of state of turning a “blind eye” to his country’s suffering at the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Zelensky’s presence spoiled Assad’s joy at the summit, because he reminded the attendees of Russia’s crimes in Ukraine,” said Rabha Saif Allam, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Cairo Center for Strategic Studies.
At a press conference afterwards, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Riyadh’s decision to invite Zelensky reflected a desire to hear from “all parties and all voices”.
The Syrians, at least, were entirely uninterested: the pro-government daily Al-Watan reported that the Syrian delegation met Zelensky’s “blind eye” remarks with a deaf ear, declining to use headphones provided for simultaneous translation of his speech.
But that kind of response likely means little to the Saudis, who may have been more concerned with dampening perceptions that they are too close to Russia, a particular worry for Washington.
“Inviting Zelensky counters that impression and also puts Russia on notice: rehabilitating Assad doesn’t give you a free hand in the region,” Diwan said.
This is consistent with Riyadh’s image of itself as “a diplomatic and potentially economic bridgehead between different global actors,” said Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham.
“Inviting Zelensky shows Riyadh wants to be not just a regional but a global player,” he said, “and to carve out a special diplomatic niche for itself in an evolving multipolar world order.”