SAUDI ARABIA TO HOST A UKRAINIAN-ORGANISED PEACE SUMMIT

Zelenskyy meets Saudi PM Muhammad bin Salman during Arab League Summit.

Sun 30 July 2023:

Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organised peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, an official said on Saturday night. Both Riyadh and Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the planned talks.

The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said the official, who spoke anonymously as no authorization had been given to discuss the summit publicly.

Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official said. A high-level official from US President Joe Biden’s administration is also expected to attend, the official said. Planning for the event is being overseen by Kyiv, and Russia is not invited, the official said.

Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, nor did Ukraine’s Embassy in Riyadh. News of the summit comes after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the talks come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to press those nations to back Kyiv. Arab nations largely have remained neutral since Russia launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.

Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group. The organization’s oil production cuts, even as Moscow’s war on Ukraine boosted energy prices, have angered Biden and American lawmakers.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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