Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19, according to Reuters.
Citing a source familiar with the meeting, the news agency said that Zelenskiy “is on his way to the Arab League summit” in the Saudi city of Jeddah. Following the Arab League in Jeddah, the Ukrainian president will head to Japan to attend the 49th G7 summit in Japan.
The participation of the Ukrainian president was not disclosed before. It is still unclear if he will be speaking at the summit. However, it is very likely he is attending to ask Arab leaders for financial and military support against Russia, which launched a special military operation in Ukraine last year.
In Jeddah, Zelensky will likely come face to face with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Moscow. Al-Assad arrived in the kingdom a day earlier to attend his first Arab League summit since the war in his country broke out more than a decade ago.
Syria was readmitted into the Arab League earlier this month despite the objection of the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union, all of whom are key allies of Kiev.
Ukrainian-Syrian relations began to deteriorate in 2016 when Damascus decided to recognize the Crimean Peninsula as a part of Russia. Two years later, Ukraine refused to revalidate residencies of Syrian diplomatic staff in Kiev.
Last year, President Zelensky said Kiev will cut ties after Syria recognized the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic. Damascus immediately responded in kind.
In March of this year, Kiev imposed sanctions on al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials. Tensions between the two countries intensified again in April when a leaked U.S. intelligence document revealed a plot by Ukrainian intelligence to attack Russian bases as well as oil and gas fields in Syria with help from a U.S. proxy group, the Kurdish-led Syrian democratic Forces.
