He also needs strong leaders in the region, and Assad has proven capable of restoring security to a war zone of international proportions, when the US, NATO, EU and US allies were supplying, funding and supporting the destruction of Syria for over a decade. President Trump finally cut the funding for the CIA program Timber Sycamore in 2017, which trained and supported the armed fighters in Syria.
Qatar and Morocco have resisted normalizing relations with Syria. The chief reason is their alliance with the US, and their pattern of following directives written in Washington.
Qatar has tried to spin their hardline anti-Assad stance as being on the side of the Syrian people, social justice and grassroots movements, and opposed to autocratic Arab regimes. However, Qatar is governed by a Prince who is an authoritarian leader, with no elections, or democratic institutions.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived in Jeddah, shook hands with the Crown Prince, and then left abruptly before addressing the summit. The Syrian state news agency said he shook hands with Assad before leaving.
Assad's speech at the summit noted the "danger of expansionist Ottoman thought", describing it as influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. This was in reference to President Erdogan of Turkey and his support of terrorists in Syria, and the continued Turkish occupation of Syria.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a global terrorist group, outlawed in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Syria and Egypt, but is still supported by Turkey and Qatar.
Vedant Patel, US State Department spokesperson, said that "we have a number of shared objectives" such as bringing home Austin Tice, a former US Marine who went missing in Syria in 2012. The US official position is against all peacemaking efforts by the Arab world towards Syria.
Even though the US sanctions have prevented chemotherapy drugs from entering Syria in the past, and recently have prevented the arrival of US and EU aid to the earthquake victims in Latakia and Aleppo, the US insists on keeping sanctions in place, while knowing that they will not remove the government, but will only make innocent civilians suffer.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended the summit, and Crown Prince Mohammed restated Riyadh's readiness to mediate in the war with Russia. Addressing the summit, Zelenskiy asked the delegates to support Ukraine's formula for peace and thanked Riyadh for its role in mediating a prisoner release last year.
Arab Gulf states have tried to remain neutral in the Ukraine conflict despite Western pressure. Russia is a fellow OPEC+ member, which ties Putin to the oil rich Gulf monarchies.
While there may be division between Qatar and Syria now, they are united in their support of seeking the freedom of Palestine, which has been the source of conflict and extremism in the Arab world for at least 70 years. Under new leadership, new vision and new goals the Arab world might be entering a golden age.
Steven Sahiounie, a two-time award-winning journalist
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