{"id":11469,"date":"2023-08-01T06:29:31","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T11:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whia.us\/?p=11469"},"modified":"2023-08-01T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T11:56:13","slug":"ksa-to-flex-international-muscles-of-its-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whia.us\/en\/11469\/","title":{"rendered":"KSA to flex international muscles of its own"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WHIA- The Week US<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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Story by Rafi Schwartz\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A<\/span>ll eyes will be on Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this weekend, as world leaders from the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia descend on the coastal Red Sea port city for a\u00a0planned peace summit<\/a>\u00a0to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s proposed\u00a010-point plan<\/a>\u00a0to end the ongoing Russian invasion of his country. Speaking on Sunday, Ukrainian official Andriy Yermak\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0the conclave, calling it a means to “restore lasting and just peace” between Ukraine and Russia, even as fighting between the two nations has\u00a0intensified<\/a>\u00a0in recent days. Unlike a\u00a0similar conference<\/a>\u00a0earlier this summer in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Jeddah summit will be notable not only for who is participating and what is being discussed, but for where it’s taking place to begin with.<\/p>\n

Although “Arab nations largely have remained neutral,” in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, “in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow,” Saudi Arabia has slowly begun showing increased involvement in the conflict, including having invited Zelenskyy to address an Arab League summit this past May, Politico\u00a0reported<\/a>. “It has kept up close ties with Russia, with which it leads the Opec+ group of oil producers and exporters, but has also sent financial aid to Ukraine,” the Foreign Times\u00a0added<\/a>, highlighting the work the kingdom has done to facilitate prisoner swaps between the two countries. So what’s behind Saudi Arabia’s sudden interest in brokering peace between Ukraine and Russia?<\/p>\n

What are the commentators saying?<\/h3>\n

The upcoming summit is “another example of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to\u00a0position himself as a global leader\u00a0with influence beyond his region,” The New York Times\u00a0said<\/a>, adding that it’s not simply about his personal ambitions, but a broader effort to “carve out a role for the kingdom as a mediator” as well. The push comes as Saudi Arabia attempts to shed its reputation as a biased party after the “White House accused it last year of\u00a0siding with Russia\u00a0in keeping oil prices high \u2014 thus bolstering Moscow’s finances,” the Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported<\/a>. Western nations agreed to hold the talks in Saudi Arabia “partly in hopes of\u00a0persuading China<\/a>, which has maintained close ties to Moscow, to participate” as well.<\/p>\n

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“The kingdom has sought to position itself as a middle power with influence beyond its region, while balancing ties with the US, Russia and China,” the Foreign Times\u00a0agreed<\/a>. Mediating the upcoming summit would “demonstrate the effectiveness of that approach,” one source added.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, with bin Salman’s personal fortunes so closely tied to those of his country, it’s impossible to fully extricate the two from one another, as “ties remain strained between Riyadh and the West over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Prince Mohammed ordered,” Politico said, pointing out the prince’s alleged efforts to “reach a d\u00e9tente with Iran and push for a peace in the kingdom’s yearslong war in Yemen.”<\/p>\n

What could happen next?<\/h3>\n

At the moment, it’s unclear how many of the 30-some countries that have reportedly been invited to the summit will actually participate. One country that won’t be participating \u2014 nor was it invited to in the first place \u2014 is Russia itself.<\/p>\n

“Russia will keep an eye on this meeting,” Kremlin spokesperson\u00a0Dmitry Peskov told reporters,\u00a0according to Russia’s Tass news agency<\/a>. “We’d have to fully understand what goals are being set and what the organizers actually plan to talk about.”<\/p>\n

Among those who\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0been invited, however, are “senior officials from China, Brazil, South Africa and India” \u2014 four of the five BRICS nations (absent Russia) who have\u00a0recently begun making moves<\/a>\u00a0to challenge the U.S. dollar’s global monetary hegemony. That effort, Fortune\u00a0reported<\/a>, has been “accelerated” by the various Western sanctions on Russia for Ukraine’s invasion. Ukraine, crucially, has pushed for “a broadening of sanctions on Moscow,” The Wall Street Journal\u00a0noted<\/a>, adding that “India, Turkey, Brazil and China have eschewed” the effort. The tension between Ukraine’s peace proposal and the group of developing nations has long been a sticking point at various stages of these negotiations. During the previous meeting in Copenhagen, “the developing-country group made it clear they were open to discussing shared principles but wouldn’t sign onto Ukraine’s plan” outright. Attending the Saudi Arabian summit suggests that those discussions remain ongoing.<\/p>\n

Russia, meanwhile, is coming off a massive summit of its own, having just finished\u00a0hosting representatives from 49 African nations<\/a>\u00a0who traveled to Moscow as Putin hopes to assuage their fears that “his\u00a0war in Ukraine\u00a0hasn’t compromised the Kremlin’s ability to provide military and political support to the continent.”<\/p>\n

Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming Jeddah conference, the fact remains that “The war in Ukraine has been a huge bonanza for the Saudis.” Writing in The Washington Post\u00a0last month<\/a>, columnist Josh Rogin laid bare an underlying financial reality in which “Saudi state oil company Aramco made\u00a0a record $161.1 billion in profit\u00a0last year, up 47 percent from 2021.”<\/p>\n

“Meanwhile,” he pointed out, “Riyadh has given Ukraine\u00a0a measly $400 million\u00a0in humanitarian aid.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riyadh has given Ukraine\u00a0a measly $400 million\u00a0in humanitarian aid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[142,199,128,129],"tags":[],"series":[1027],"coauthors":[238],"class_list":["post-11469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-most-important-topics-en","category-top-stories","category-updates-en","category-usa-world-en","series-whia-synergy"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/whia.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/afp3-e1665932023121.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/whia.us\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/whia.us\/en\/feed\/podcast\/whia-synergy","embedCode":"

KSA to flex international muscles of its own<\/a><\/blockquote>