Bashar Assad comes out smelling of roses

The reinstatement of Bashar al-Asssad in the eyes of the Arab world is another cynical exercise in realpolitik Middle Eastern diplomacy. Here is a man whose regime has slaughtered tens if not hundreds of thousands of its own citizens in a brutal civil war, used chemical weapons against his enemies and saved his own life and his position of power by abusing every known moral, legal and ethical standard. Yet now he is being embraced, literally, by his fellow Arab leaders who seem to think it's the right time to bring the leader of Syria back into the family fold. Assad has been seen in Jeddah being welcomed by participants in the Arab League summit. He received a strong bearhug welcome from the Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Now there are two gentle folk of the Arab world sticking together! When asked whether this would mean the United States reviewing its policy towards Assad, Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, shook his head and said no. Nevertheless, Assad must be delighted that his fellow Arab leaders have now, it seems, recognised that he is still the legitimate leader of Syria and that he has largely got his country back under his control, give or take the odd slice of territory in the east and northeast where the remnants of the Islamic State are still battling it out against anyone who opposes them, including anti-Assad Arabs and Kurds and around 900 US troops. Assad will have returned to Damascus with a big smile on his face. Killing your own citizens on a grand scale, it seems, is ok when it comes to ensuring Arab unity.