By Diana Magnay

Saudi Arabia is positioning itself both as a neutral third party to act as mediator between Russia and the United States, and as a geopolitical heavyweight which would naturally play host to talks of this stature. 

Arab nations are due to meet in Riyadh this week too to discuss Arab proposals for peace in Gaza. 

We have come a long way since the Kingdom’s isolation after the horrific murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Turkey in 2018.

Saudi has acted as mediator in many of the prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine over the course of the Ukraine war, and between Russia and the United States in the huge prisoner swap last year – as well as US teacher Marc Fogel’s release from Russian custody last week. 

Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was involved in last week’s swap, travelling to Moscow too to negotiate Fogel’s release. He seems to have trumped Russia-Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg as the US president’s point person on all matters Russia-Ukraine as well as Middle East. Personal contacts – and their friendship goes back – count for a lot with this president.

Trump clearly also likes to deal just with the big guys. For him, that’s Saudi Arabia, that’s Russia, that’s not his long-standing allies in the EU who he considers weak and vacillating. This is the new realist, Trumpian world order and it’s going to be a bumpy ride.