Saudi Arabia plans to host talks on the conflict in Ukraine bringing together representatives of Kiev, Western powers and developing countries on August 5-6. While Ukraine considered that its formula for peace is the only way.
Agence France-Presse quoted three diplomats in the Gulf as saying that Russia will not attend the meeting in Jeddah, noting that Moscow did not participate in a similar meeting held in June in Copenhagen.
The three diplomats said that the final list of participating countries has not yet been prepared, and countries including Britain and Japan are expected to attend.
This comes as the director of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, said that President Vladimir Zelensky’s peace formula is the only way to end the war. He added that his country is working with its partners to develop a unified understanding of this formula by establishing a structure for coordination among the concerned countries.
For its part, The Wall Street Journal reported in a report that Ukraine will participate in the Jeddah talks, which will include about 30 countries, with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan likely to participate. She added that developing countries such as Brazil, which attended the meeting in Copenhagen, are also expected to participate in the Jeddah meetings.
The newspaper said that Ukrainian and Western officials hope that these efforts will culminate in a peace summit later in 2023, which will hopefully witness world leaders signing common principles to end the war. Western and Ukrainian officials also hope that these principles will form the framework for future peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that will benefit Kiev.
However, the newspaper says that the summit hoped to be held this year will not include Russia, which has avoided any serious talk of peace and stuck to its hard-line demands for a settlement, including the annexation of lands not currently controlled by its forces.
The newspaper pointed out that these moves come at a time when the war seems to have reached a dead end, with neither side able to achieve real gains on the ground in recent months.
She added that it is not yet clear the total number of countries that will attend the Jeddah meeting, although expectations speak of the attendance of the countries that participated in the Copenhagen talks.
Western diplomats said Saudi Arabia was chosen to host the round of talks in the hope of persuading China, which maintains close ties with Moscow, to take part.
China did not participate in the Copenhagen talks despite claiming to be working on a peace plan for Ukraine. Diplomats participating in the talks said that Beijing is not expected to attend the Jeddah meeting, but at the same time they did not rule out its participation.
This is Riyadh’s latest effort to consolidate its presence in the diplomatic tracks related to the Ukraine war, after it hosted Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the Arab League Summit in Jeddah in May, where he accused Arab leaders of “turning a blind eye” to the consequences of the Russian invasion.
Riyadh supported UN Security Council resolutions condemning the Russian invasion and Russia’s annexation of lands in eastern Ukraine.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia continued to coordinate with Russia on energy policy within the “OPEC Plus” alliance, including the decisions to cut oil production that were approved in October 2022, which Washington considered amounted to “aligning itself with Russia” in the war. .
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2023-07-30 05:33:32
