Arab Countries Unlikely To Condemn Accession Of New Territories To Russia - Expert

CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2022) Arab countries are unlikely to make condemning statements about the accession of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republic (DPR and LPR), as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to Russia due to "strong" relations with Moscow, Ahmed Moustafa, the director of the Cairo-based Asia Center for Studies and Translation, has told Sputnik.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the DPR, the LPR, and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions signed agreements on the accession of the territories to Russia and the formation of new subjects within the country.

"Russian-Arab relations are strong, because even with the US-backed Gulf states, they have benefited from OPEC+ with Russia and the rise in oil prices in particular. Which in turn was a great compensation to them for many years, in which oil was sold far below the fair price, not the market price," Moustafa said.

He noted that Arab countries, Egypt in particular, are unlikely to take any decisions against Moscow.

"The Arabs, even at the beginning of the crisis, are wary of taking any decision against Russia that may negatively affect them, especially a country like Egypt that imports a large amount of Russian and Ukrainian wheat, and after the annexation of Ukrainian wheat lands, I do not think that Egypt will be against the Russian will," Moustafa said.

The director added that some countries of the Arab world may voice reservations, but added that "the Arab peoples are with Russia" in general.

Moustafa said that Putin "is a good student of Western psychology and plays on it professionally," adding that many Arabs compared the Russian president with ex-Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein "in his war against Zionism, Nazism and the West."

The accession of new territories to Russia "will aggravate the economic situation" in Ukraine and the West, the expert said, adding that "the European countries unfriendly to Russia will return to the middle Ages."

"The poor will resort to cutting trees and wood again from the forests for heating, and this also will not help. This, in turn, will increase the burden of life in Europe, and the collapse of the European system based on selfish individualism... Europe has always settled its battles and disputes in distant countries, in the Arab world, Africa, Asia or Latin America, this time Europe is consuming the bitterness of war. Governments, whoever they are, will not be able to afford more additional support for several months, with large companies halting production, as well as unemployment," Moustafa said.

On September 23-27, the LPR and DPR, the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions held referendums on whether to become part of Russia. The overwhelming majority of the population, exhausted by intensifying attacks of Ukrainian forces, supported joining Russia.