12.54 Sara Hodzic
Saudi Arabia after leading role in prisoner exchange: "Cynical" to think it's about self-interest
Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, the brutal Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), along with the Turkish president, played a crucial role in the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine since the war started in late February.
If it weren't for Mohammed bin Salman, two American citizens, five Britons, a Moroccan, a Swede and a Croat might never have made it home alive from Russian prisons.
According to The Guardian , the Saudi foreign minister was asked on Friday whether the Saudi facilitation was a rare opportunity to repair relations with the West, especially after the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi:
"I think it's a very cynical point of view. What we saw, what the kingdom's leadership saw, was an opportunity to achieve a humanitarian breakthrough to get these prisoners back to their families. And that was the motivation,' says Adel al-Jubeir, according to the British media.
In an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, almost 300 prisoners were exchanged between the two warring countries, including the ten foreign prisoners.
It was the Saudi crown prince who was responsible for flying the ten foreign prisoners of war to Riyadh, from where they will be repatriated to their home countries.
As Berlingske's Middle East correspondent, Carolina Kamil,
writes in this analysis:
"After four years in the cold, Saudi Arabia's brutal crown prince is back in the warmth of the international community. (..) It is first and foremost a huge diplomatic victory for MBS and Erdogan.«
Here you can see the foreign prisoners landed in Saudi Arabia. Photo: Saudi Press Agency/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix
Læs mere her.
www.berlingske.dk
I read the article in Reuters and it didn't mention the mediating parties at all.