The UAE Foreign Minister made Russia move towards the Arabs

Just after having led the UAE delegation to the extraordinary session of the Arab League Council at the ministerial level in Cairo, the UAE Foreign Minister H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan started with a special and urgent diplomatic mission to Moscow. The purpose seemed to be to try to convince the Russia’s leadership to understand the Arab League stance on Syria as well as to make steps towards this stance. The chief of the UAE diplomacy succeeded in that hard mission – Russia seems to start moving towards the Arabs.  

After the talks with his UAE counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday, Lavrov actually said as follows: “We seek to maintain close cooperation with the LAS to boost the dialogue. We respect the LAS decisions because they are related to all Arab countries”.  

To remind that in the final statement issued after the League session in Cairo yesterday, the Council decided to end mission of Arab observers in Syria and to urge the UN Security Council to issue a resolution on forming a joint Arab and international peacekeeping force to monitor the situation there and to ensure that the ceasefire stands. The Council also renewed commitment to implement all resolutions issued by the body, including the 22 January one on a road map for peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.  The Council decided to halt all forms of diplomatic cooperation with representatives of the Syrian regime, describing the use of violence against innocent civilians as an action that is punishable by international criminal law. The Council decided to open channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and to provide all means of political and material support to them. Addressing the session, Arab League Secretary General Dr Nabil Al Arabi said it was necessary to launch a joint Arab-international action at the Security Council, in coordination with Russia and China which recently blocked the UN Security Council resolution on Syria.

In this context Russia appears not to stand aside from the diplomatic mainstream over Syria. And the rare and fruitful opportunity in this sense was presented by the extraordinary visit to Moscow of the UAE Foreign Minister H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Russia will approve a conference of the Friends of Syria Group if it supports all Syrians, not only the opposition, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “If this conference supports all Syrians, this will be the right approach. ..If the conference involves only ‘friends of certain groups [the Syrian opposition]’, it will not achieve the key goal set by the League of Arab States and backed by Russia – to promote an inter-Syrian dialogue,” the Russian minister stressed.

“Our friends in the Arab world also treat Russia’s position with respect because the events in the region will have an impact on the geopolitical situation,” Lavrov noted. The League of Arab States is currently considering a proposal to send a new mission to conflict-torn Syria including U.N. monitors, the Egyptian television said on Sunday. The league also wants to ask the world community to tighten its sanctions on Damascus.