Strategic Council Online - Interview: An expert on Middle East affairs commenting on the process of rapprochement of the Arabs and Syria and the developments that have taken place in this regard, said: Normalization of the relations of Arabs, especially Saudi Arabia and Syria, on the one hand, is due to global developments, especially the war in Ukraine and the US focus on that war and, the other, returns to the change in the policies of Riyadh.
In an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Jafar Qanadbashi explained: There are two views regarding the roots of this development in the field of diplomacy; the first is the changes happening in the world and started with the war in Ukraine. It is said that parallel to the US involvement in the Ukraine war, the weakness of the US diplomatic capabilities has also affected the Middle East region.
Qanadbashi added: That group of experts believe that the reduction of the US capabilities in advancing its regional policies has caused the country’s allies to act more independently compared to the past. Therefore, as a trans-regional factor, this issue has caused those changes in the region and between the Arabs and Syria.
He added: Today; we see that Syria, which was the target of the US indifference, has become the center of attention of the countries in the region.
He also explained the second point of view of the experts: The second group considers those developments as a result of Saudi Arabia’s serious revision of its regional policies and retreat from the past interventionist ambitions. This group believes that Mohammed bin Salman, who is also in the position of the Saudi Defense Ministry and intends to create favorable conditions for being placed in the role of monarch, has believed in a series of expert calculations that Saudi Arabia is at a dead end.
He added: According to bin Salman, the liberation of Saudi Arabia from this impasse depends on a profound revision of the country’s regional policies.
The expert on Middle East affairs emphasized: This group of experts point to Saudi Arabia’s failures in the Yemen war on the one hand, and on the other hand, they emphasize the successes of the countries of the Axis of Resistance in attracting the public opinion of the Arab and the Islamic world.
Qanadbashi continued: Those experts believe that the driving force of all the regional developments that took place with the agreement of Iran and Saudi Arabia with the mediation of China was nothing but Riyadh’s revision in its positions. Saudi Arabia encouraged China to mediate with Iran, and a series of diplomatic developments were launched through the agreement with Iran in Beijing.
The expert emphasized: It was natural that after this development, there would be changes in the relations between the friends of Iran and Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, negotiations began in Yemen for peace and the end of the war, and on the other hand, the UAE, as one of the regional allies of Saudi Arabia, started taking steps for relations with Iran and Syria.
He continued: Riyadh started efforts to resume relations with Syria, and the Arab League spoke about the necessity of Syria’s return to the Arab League in a larger framework at the extraordinary meeting in Cairo.
According to the expert, the agreement of the Arab League countries with the return of Syria meant canceling the policy used against this country for 12 years. In a correct sense, it said the policy started 12 years ago by expelling Syria as one of the principal founders of the Arab League to fulfill the demands of the US and the Israeli regime in the region. Still, despite the enormous costs it involved for Saudi Arabia, this policy faced a huge failure.
Qanadbashi continued by pointing out that the return of Syria to the Arab League caused the displeasure of the Israeli regime and the US and explained: The reason was that from the point of view of the Americans and Israelis, the return of Syria to the Arab League not only means the defeat of their allies in the region but also is considered as the concept of success of Iran and Resistance countries in the region.
He explained: Especially because it was Iran that took many measures to prevent the overthrow in Syria as one of the allies of that country, and it was Iran that insisted on Bashar al-Assad remaining in power. Of course, in the current situation, the Americans are also hopeful of taking advantage of this policy change, and therefore, to some extent, they agree with the continuation of the normalization process with Syria so that in the recruitment among the current ranks in the Middle East, weaken the ties between Syria and the countries of the axis of resistance.
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