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A man walks on a street with several dead bodies on the ground a street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, on April 2, 2022. Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A delegation comprising of the Arab League secretary general and the foreign ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and Algeria will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Monday to help reach a political settlement between Russia and Ukraine.
Arab League Assistant Secretary General Hossam Zaki has said the organization is determined to facilitate efforts to reach an agreement between Russia and Ukraine, Russian state media TASS reported. The Arab states enjoy good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, and have sought to maintain neutrality in the conflict by refraining from issuing condemnations.
The organization’s Secretary General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has called on member states to approach the situation in Ukraine in a way that will best serve their national interests, TASS added. The impact of the war in Ukraine on global food supplies has many Arab League members concerned.
Russia is the world’s top wheat exporter and Ukraine is known to be the breadbasket of Europe, but a little known fact is that Middle Eastern states rely heavily on Ukrainian agricultural exports. Globally, the price of wheat is expected to soar, raising the risk of worsening food insecurity in the Middle East.
According to the US Department of Agriculture more than 40 percent of Ukraine’s wheat exports over 2020-2021 went to the Middle East and North Africa. Lebanon, Egypt, and Libya are the biggest buyers of Ukrainian exports in the region, while war-torn countries such as Yemen and Syria heavily rely on aid from international organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP), which purchase Ukrainian wheat to provide this aid.
Prices of flour and cooking oils have skyrocketed in local Iraqi markets, sparking large demonstrations in the southern city of Nasiriyah earlier this month. Iraqi officials blamed the conflict in Ukraine for the sudden price increase, AFP reported.
The Iraqi government recently announced a series of measures aimed at confronting the global price increase, as well as suspending custom duties on food products.
Dozens of bodies were found in mass graves or littering the streets of towns previously occupied by Russian forces near the capital Kyiv over the weekend, according to AFP. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of committing genocide.
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