Saudi Arabia’s ancient Red Sea port city Jeddah, stewing in the steamy heat of the world’s hottest summer on record, is not the obvious pick to cool the world’s fiercest conflict, currently raging in Ukraine.
Yet, the desert kingdom’s king-in-waiting, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – MBS for short – thinks he can help. Last fall he had a role in the release of Western mercenaries captured by Russian forces while fighting in Ukraine. Now he is hosting a summit to discuss peace in the country.
Even so Ukrainian officials are pinning their hopes on it, “to unite the world around Ukraine.” The White House is sending National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. For one, Saudi Arabia, unlike Denmark, has not overtly taken a side in the war. More significantly MBS has leverage. Like the roads that led to Rome in its day, Saudi Arabia is increasingly at the confluence of competing global interests.
The two nations have reopened diplomatic missions in their respective capitals and come fall will likely extend their newfound cooperation into commerce. Part of Biden’s pitch to MBS when they met last year was: Don’t cut oil production, it hurts my citizens at the gas pumps at home, and by the way, helps Russia fund its war in Ukraine by driving up oil prices.
It’s a work in progress, but he sees where he wants to go and part of that involves one of the Middle East’s thorniest issues: Saudi’s rapprochement with Israel.
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