The announcement, confirmed by a reliable source at The360, sounds like a bomb. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be the guest of honor at the Arab League summit to be held tomorrow Friday (May 19) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At the same time, he will have to give a speech in front of the Heads of State and delegations of the member countries of the Arab League. The initiative comes from Saudi Arabia, president and host of this 32nd summit. And she took everyone by surprise. And for good reason, the Arab League and its constituent states have so far refrained from taking a decided position in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Zelensky’s presence in Jeddah is worth a radical change in this posture for frank and direct support from the Arab world to Ukraine and, more generally, to the Western camp in the war which opposes it to Moscow.
However, this one has allies, for some unconditional, of Russia. Name Syria, which marks its return to the Arab family, from which it was expelled at the end of 2011 after the repression of a popular uprising that degenerated into a devastating war. The Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs had also confirmed on Wednesday that President Bashar al-Assad would participate in the summit in Jeddah, to which the kingdom invited him last week. This, in particular thanks to a detente qualified as historic between Riyadh and Tehran, another great support of the Syrian regime in the region and sworn enemy, at least so far, of Saudi Arabia.
MBS, heavyweight class
For political scientist and academic Mohamed Chiker, the main message of this invitation is to mark the considerable and decisive weight of Saudi Arabia in the Arab world, and it is addressed by Riyadh… to the United States. “Even if it has taken a great distance from Washington on a number of issues, in particular refusing any increase in oil production to the chagrin of the United States and approaching Iran, with the blessing of China, and Syria while the Americans strongly oppose it, Riyadh means that it can also play important roles in the direction of the interests of the West in general, ”he explains.
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And to add: “Ryad thus demonstrates both its independence and its status as an essential regional power. With the overwhelming majority of Arab countries that matter being de facto aligned with the pro-Ukrainian camp, the Saudi card is proving to be a winner from all points of view”.
Syria grateful, Algeria losing
What about Syria and Algeria? “As things stand, Damascus, in search of a new legitimacy, cannot express anything contrary to the will of Riyadh, which was behind its reintegration into the Arab League. As for Algeria, it is the big loser in this reversal of the situation, ”slices the political scientist. Not only did Algiers not agree to the invitation addressed to Zelensky, but it was not even consulted. Although the Algerian regime boasts of being a supposed pillar of non-alignment, barely hiding its Russian tropism, Ryad has effortlessly pulled the rug out from under it, while ignoring it. Let us recall that no later than last April and this beginning of May, when Algeria was still chairing the Arab League, two decisive meetings, bringing together several Arab countries, were held to discuss the possible reintegration of Syria. within the pan-Arab organization in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. And without Algeria which, however, made the abortive presence of Damascus at “its” summit in Algiers (from November 1 and 2, 2022) a real standard. Nothing will happen. “The proof that the neighbor has neither weight nor influence on the Arab scene and that with the meeting of the Arab League in Jeddah, the parenthesis of its post-summit gesticulations in Algiers is definitively closed”, concludes Chiker.
The Algerian regime, a mafia system not respected
It is easy to imagine that the news of the presence of the Ukrainian president in Jeddah causes an earthquake in Algiers. The neighboring media did not fail to erect their wailing wall to criticize the “unilaterally decided” invitation of the Ukrainian head of state by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a true strongman of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, architect of a profound change in his country and of his strong comeback on the international diplomatic scene.
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The presence of Zelensky at the top of the Arab League scathingly closes the empty parenthesis of the Algerian presidency of the Arab League summit. It also provides proof of the insignificance of the Algerian regime and the lack of weight of its leaders. Abdelmadjid Tebboune was not even informed of the holding of an Arab League summit on May 19 in Saudi Arabia. A week before the announcement of the summit, he held forth in an interview given to the channel AlJazeera on future actions to be taken as president of the Arab League.
How can Arab leaders give any credit to the Algerian mafia system and its corrupt rulers? Since the interminable vendetta that targets the Gaïd Salah clan, two black boxes of the regime have fled to foreign countries with secret documents. God only knows what Gaïd Salah’s former private secretary, Guermit Bounouira, gave to the Emirati and Turkish intelligence services before being handed over by the Turkish authorities to the Algerian junta, which sentenced him to death. Who can know what holds with him another strong man of the regime, still on the run, the former head of the gendarmerie, General Ghali Belkecir?
What is apparent today for several countries is that the generals at the head of Algeria, as well as the civilian front, belong to a mafia system. It should be borne in mind that according to Robert S. Ford, former American ambassador to Algeria, Ahmed Gaïd Salah was the most corrupt officer in the world, as evidenced by a cable from WikiLeaks. Guermit Bounouira claimed in a video recording that Saïd Chengriha, the current head of the Algerian army, is a drug trafficker who has control over all of western Algeria. As for Tebboune, his son Khalid was sentenced to prison in the so-called El Bouchi case. This case relates to the seizure of a cargo of 701 kg of cocaine in the port of Oran, in May 2018, imported by Kamel Chikhi, known as El Bouchi (literally “the butcher”). As for the Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, he does not forget that he was charged in the Khalifa affair, considered one of the biggest financial scandals in Algeria. Tebboune, who in 2002 was housing minister, had a credit card loaded with foreign currency that he used during his trips abroad. Tebboune had to justify himself before a judge for this credit card, graciously offered by Abdelmoumen Khalifa, even though the current president of Algeria did not even have an account at Khalifa Bank.
Is it this Algeria that wants to be heard and respected?
Dmytro Kouleba in Rabat
What about Morocco then? For Rabat, nothing changes. As Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita recalled on March 1, Morocco “is not a party to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine” and “did not participate and does not participate, under any whatever form it takes to this conflict.
Read also: Ukrainian crisis: Morocco stands out for its position of balance and wisdom, according to a political scientist
Rabat treats this conflict as an issue that affects world peace and security, with its significant economic and social consequences, and its position “is based on the principles of preservation of State sovereignty and respect for territorial integrity. member countries of the United Nations, the peaceful settlement of disputes, support for a constructive neighborhood policy, as well as respect for the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations”. It is on the basis of this position that Morocco expressed itself in favor of the condemnation by the UN General Assembly of the “illegal annexations” of Ukrainian territories, voted on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 by an overwhelming majority, and that he supported, on Thursday, February 23, 2023, the UN resolution reaffirming the UN’s commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, while calling for a comprehensive and lasting peace in this country, theater of an armed conflict with Russia. It is also in this capacity that the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kouleba, is expected in Rabat next week, learns le360 from a reliable source.
Zelensky’s invitation to the Arab League summit constitutes an important geopolitical sequence in the region, which politically rallies an important group of countries to the Ukrainian cause and to the Western bloc. The presence of the Ukrainian president in Jeddah also shows the power of Washington’s levers of pressure on a number of Arab countries, and particularly Saudi Arabia. This country has taken liberties in recent months that could suggest a distance with its traditional Western ally. With Zelensky’s presence in Jeddah, MBS shows that changing sides is out of the question.
