Riyadh: The recent US-Russian talks in Riyadh had highlighted the crucial role played by Saudi Arabia as a key mediator for world peace and security. Saudi Arabia, in the past, played a pivotal role in ending crises and one of them was the Lebanese civil war, which lasted for 15 years and ended with the Taif Agreement in 1989.
According to Kuwait News Agency, with the three-year-long Russian-Ukrainian war, Saudi Arabia rose to the occasion and hosted the recent talks between the US and Russia on Tuesday to put an end to the conflict. A statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry welcomed the US-Russia summit aimed at peace between Russia and Ukraine. The statement added that as early as March 3, 2022, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman contacted both Ukraine and Russia to find a political resolution to the issue at hand.
Fast forward to 2025, Riyadh hosted the summit attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, which put the Saudi capital as the initial venue for the road to peace between both parties of the war, Russia and Ukraine. Pivoting away from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Kingdom and partners are eyeing a solution for another alarming issue, the plight of the Palestinian people, namely those in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza war has highlighted the harsh conditions faced by the people of the Gaza Strip. In this context, Saudi Arabia expressed unwavering support for the Palestinian people, stressing that Palestinians attaining their full rights in an independent state through the Arab peace initiative was key to bringing security and calm in the Middle East. As the war on Gaza began back in October 2023, Saudi Arabia urged the international community to put an end to the crimes against the Palestinian people.
It held an extraordinary Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in November 2023 in Riyadh, which resulted in the formation of a committee that coordinated international efforts to end the war in the Gaza Strip. Another Arab-Islamic summit was held in Saudi Arabia in 2024, also focusing on the situation in Palestine and Lebanon.
In September 2024, Saudi Arabia announced, on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly, the formation of an international coalition to push for the two-state solution in the Middle East. This coalition comprised countries from the Arab and Islamic worlds as well as European partners. In October of the same year, Saudi Arabia hosted the first session of the international coalition, which saw the participation of over 90 countries, in addition to UNRWA, with the aim of setting the course for a two-state solution.
As for future plans, Saudi Arabia will be hosting on Friday a small-scale Arab summit to address the US plans for displacing the Palestinian people, especially those in the Gaza Strip, with participating countries focusing on a viable Arab solution to this important and crucial matter. The summit will also look into a unified stance on reconstructing the Gaza Strip without the need to move Palestinians from their homes and lands.