Author: admin

He was embraced by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A decade ago, the Saudis funded anti-Assad militias. Now the prince, known as MBS, wants to remake the Middle East, and he needs Syria onside.

In a speech, President Assad insisted that Syria would always belong to the Arab world. But other countries should not interfere with what happened inside its borders.

“It is important to leave internal affairs to the country’s people as they are best able to manage them,” he said.

By the people, President Assad meant the leader and his supporters. Between them, the princes and presidents at the summit have locked up many thousands of their opponents.

Events in Jeddah are being viewed with dismay by Syrians who blame the Assad regime for destroying their country, including all the Syrian refugees I have spoken to in Lebanon.

Lebanon, small and poor, has had to tolerate well over a million Syrians fleeing the war. That is the equivalent of a quarter of the Lebanese population – something like the UK accepting over 15 million refugees.

Now many Lebanese have had enough, making Syrians a convenient scapegoat for their own country’s chronic economic and political problems.

In the last few weeks, the army has deported around 1,500 of them back over the border at gunpoint, sometimes leaving children behind in Lebanon or forcing children out without their parents.

A refugee family speaking on condition that their identities were kept secret talked about life in a town near Beirut where a curfew has been imposed on Syrians.

The children have been thrown out of school. The turmoil in their lives is clear in their teenage daughter’s anguished artwork. Their father views the authoritarian Arab leaders embrace of Bashar al-Assad with contempt – and fear.

“The Assad regime is a dictatorship – the same as the other Arab regimes. They’re helping each other, cooperating against the people.”

In a refugee camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Assad’s presence in Jeddah was another crushing blow. Nasser and Marwa, a couple who’ve been here since 2013, fear Assad’s return to the Arab League might be an excuse for more deportations.

Marwa said she woke up every morning thanking God she hadn’t been deported.

“Now we’re always afraid of the raids. I always imagine that they will come and take all the men and deport them.”

Nasser said he faced being drafted into the army if he went back. He escaped Syria to avoid fighting for the regime. He’s desperately worried about what would happen to his wife and their 18-month-old daughter Lillas if they are forced back.

Nasser was disgusted with the Arab League’s decision to readmit Assad’s Syria.

“After everything that he’s done, they’re hosting him. I don’t understand it, after all the killing and destruction, and the misery in Syria – it’s not acceptable.”

Syria, and the Assad regime, remain under US and European sanctions. Amnesty International, the human rights group, said that the president “turned Syria into a slaughterhouse”.

The UK government, Amnesty said, should “strenuously oppose any attempt to bolster Assad’s international standing”.

Some members of the Arab League agree. Qatar, which also funded the armed opposition in Syria, does not approve of Assad’s gradual return to Arab respectability.

But as well as the wider geopolitical plans of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who believe the Assad regime is a Middle Eastern reality and Syria a country they need to influence, there are other reasons for wanting to court Assad.

Jordan, as well as the Saudis, are fighting the spread of a narcotic drug called Captagon, which is made in Syria and smuggled into their countries. It is an amphetamine that was given to fighters to boost their endurance but is now widely used as a recreational drug.

The US and UK have imposed sanctions on named members of the Assad family who they say are heavily involved in the Captagon trade. Some estimates say the business is worth more than $50 billion (£40bn) a year.

At the United Nations, which runs a huge relief operation in Syria and Lebanon, there is cautious hope Syria’s readmission to the Arab League might somehow become a circuit breaker that allows diplomatic progress.

Imran Riza, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for Lebanon, tried to find a positive.

“If what’s happening now in the region is going to help to get us to a political solution then it’s a good thing.”

But the UN does not support forced repatriation. It insists that Syrian refugees cannot return home until their country is safe and secure. That is a long way off.

President Bashar al-Assad broke his country to save his regime. There has been no justice for his victims.

But there is a lesson for ruthless, authoritarian leaders, not least his close ally, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, whose decisive military intervention in 2015 helped the Assad regime to victory.

Wait out the storm and you can outlast your enemies.

The Ukrainian president made the comments while attending an Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Of the Arab League nations, only Syria has openly supported Russia’s invasion. Others have sought to maintain good relations with Moscow.

But some states must reflect on their ties with Russia, Mr Zelensky said.

“Unfortunately, there are some in the world and here among you who turn a blind eye to those [prisoner of war] cages and illegal annexations,” said Mr Zelensky.

“I’m here so that everyone can take an honest look, no matter how hard the Russians try to influence, there must still be independence.”

Mr Zelensky also told the assembled leaders in Jeddah that his country was defending itself from colonisers and imperialists, appearing to invoke the Arab world’s own history of invasion and occupation.

Host nation Saudi Arabia has walked a delicate line on the conflict – on the one hand supporting a UN resolution calling for Russia to withdraw its troops and pledging $400m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, while on the other hand resisting imposing sanctions on Russia, preferring to see itself as neutral on the conflict.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman renewed his offer for Saudi Arabia to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv to end the fighting at the summit.

Syria meanwhile has only just been readmitted to the Arab League – its leader Bashar al-Assad told the summit there was an historic opportunity for the region to reshape itself without foreign interference.

Mr Zelensky also took aim at Iran, which is not a member of the Arab League, for supplying Shahed drones to Russia. Iran denies supplying drones for the conflict.

The Ukrainian leader will travel from Saudi Arabia to the G7 summit on Sunday, Japan confirmed on Saturday morning. Officials said he will take part in the summit’s leaders’ session and take part in a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Earlier, Mr Zelensky’s office also told Ukrainian media that he would meet with US President Joe Biden “in the next few days” in Japan.

The summit kicked off on Friday with a renewed condemnation of Russia and an announcement of further sanctions.

The group of seven nations, made up of the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan, represent the world’s richest democracies. This year, eight other countries including Australia and India have also been invited.

The trip to Japan will be the furthest Mr Zelensky has travelled from Kyiv since the war began in February 2022.

In the past few days Mr Zelensky has visited Italy, Germany, France and the UK, where he nailed down promises of military support. He also continues to push allies to provide advanced fighter jets to Ukraine, but so far no country has committed to directly providing them.

Once he reaches Hiroshima he will probably try to persuade more cautious leaders to provide aid, such as Mr Kishida and Indian leader Narendra Modi.

“By showing up in person, it is a chance for him to ensure he does not come away empty-handed, and that he will head back to Kyiv his arms full with the weapons deals that he wants”, including a promise of lethal weapons from Japan, said John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group think tank.

Though Japan has been hugely sympathetic to Ukraine, its strict military laws have meant that so far it has only given non-lethal defence equipment.

Earlier on Friday, G7 leaders were welcomed by Mr Kishida at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park where they laid wreaths to honour those who died in the US atomic bombing which hastened the end of World War Two.

The summit’s first day ended with a statement in which member countries pledged “new steps” to stop the war in Ukraine and promised further sanctions to “increase the costs to Russia and those who are supporting its war effort”.

They said they would “starve Russia of G7 technology, industrial equipment and services that support its war machine” and limit Russia’s revenue from energy and diamond sales.

Separately, British PM Rishi Sunak told the BBC the UK would sanction the Russian diamond industry, and would target more people and companies connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In response to what it termed “anti-Russian” US sanctions, the Russian foreign ministry announced its own set of sanctions on 500 US citizens, including former US President Barack Obama.

The G7 summit, which ends on Sunday, is expected to end with a communique on the war in Ukraine.

Mr Sunak told reporters the public were more interested in whether the government was improving their lives.

Labour’s attacks on the PM have become increasingly personal in recent weeks, with the party accusing him of being out of touch because of his wealth.

It has also criticised Mr Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, for previously benefitting from non-dom tax status.

Asked by journalists during his visit to Japan for the G7 summit whether comments about his wealth and upbringing were fair game, Mr Sunak said: “These things generally don’t worry me.

“I don’t think most people sitting at home actually are much bothered about these things either. What they care about is what am I doing for them to make their lives better.”

He added: “I think we’ve moved beyond judging people by what’s in their bank account. I think they’re interested in whether I’m going to deliver for them and their families.”

Asked whether it was hurtful when Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer talked about his family, Mr Sunak said: “These things don’t bother me.”

In recent sessions of Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir has accused the prime minister of being “clueless about life outside his bubble”.

In the run-up to the local elections in England earlier this month, Labour also put out a number of adverts on Twitter attacking Mr Sunak personally.

The most controversial claimed the prime minister did not think adults convicted of child sexual assaults should go to prison.

Sir Keir defended the advert, saying it highlighted the government’s failures on crime, but there was uneasiness about the move among some in Labour.

Another advert criticised Mr Sunak for raising taxes on working people, while his family benefitted from “a tax loophole” – a reference to his wife’s non-dom status.

Last year, it emerged that Mr Sunak’s wife had non-dom status, which allows people living in the UK to avoid paying UK tax on money made abroad.

She later said she would start paying UK tax on her overseas earnings.

At the time Mr Sunak, who was then chancellor, described criticism of his wife as “unpleasant smears”, arguing it was unfair to attack a private citizen.

He has also previously admitted he found it “very upsetting” when his wife faced criticism over shares she owned in a tech company operating in Russia.

Mr Assad was shunned by many fellow leaders after his government’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests triggered a civil war in which half a million people have been killed.

Syria was readmitted this month after states which had backed the opposition accepted his grip on power was secure.

They include summit hosts Saudi Arabia.

The rapprochement accelerated following the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and north-western Syria in February, when once-hostile powers decided to send humanitarian aid to Syrian government-controlled areas.

China also brokered a surprise agreement in March that saw Saudi Arabia restore diplomatic ties with its long-time regional rival Iran, which along with Russia has helped Mr Assad’s forces regain control of Syria’s biggest cities.

Large parts of the country are nevertheless still held by Turkish-backed rebels, jihadists, and Kurdish-led militia fighters supported by the United States.

Half of Syria’s pre-war population of 22 million have had to flee their homes. Some 6.8 million people are internally displaced, while another 6 million are refugees or asylum-seekers abroad.

Even before the earthquake struck an estimated 15.3 million people inside Syria were in need of some form of humanitarian assistance – an all-time high since the war began.

President Assad arrived on Thursday night in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, where this year’s Arab League summit is taking place.

At a meeting of the foreign ministers of the 22 member states on Wednesday, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit declared that he hoped that “Syria’s regaining of its seat is a precursor to the end of its conflict”.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud also welcomed Syria.

“Our world today is facing numerous challenges and difficulties that place us at a crossroads,” he said. “It is necessary for us to stand together and try harder to strengthen joint Arab action to meet them.”

But not every country was enthusiastic about Syria’s reinstatement.

Qatar’s foreign minister told a news conference in Doha that it had dropped its opposition only because it did not want to “deviate from the Arab consensus”.

The US meanwhile said it did “not believe that Syria merits readmission”.

“Our position is clear – we are not going to normalise relations with the Assad regime, and we certainly don’t support others doing that as well,” state department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.