As Assad returns to the global herd, MARK ALMOND asks: How long before Putin is happy again?

Bashar Al Assad is no longer a pariah. Yesterday, at an Arab League conference in the Saudi city of Jeddah, the Syrian dictator was hailed as the returning prodigal son.

Barely 12 years ago, Syria was expelled from the regional organization after the dictator began waging a brutal war against his own people.

But now the Arab states – with the notable exception of Qatar – are willing to turn a blind eye to the butcher’s atrocities.

Not so long ago, the Saudis and other monarchs of the Gulf, as well as the West, funded the rebels fighting against Assad’s regime.

But yesterday, Arab leaders eagerly folded his blood-soaked hands. This rehabilitation of a despot is not only sickening – it sends a dangerous message to other aggressive regimes.

Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai region, Russia on May 19, 2023

Hold on long enough, they will conclude, and even states that oppose you today will eventually welcome you back into the fold.

For example, Vladimir Putin will certainly take heart. How long before he, like Assad, is happy with international summits again? How long before news footage of Ukrainian children, whose limbs have been shot off by Russian bombs, is conveniently ignored for the sake of economic opportunity?

When Assad began shelling his own citizens in 2011, Western leaders spoke fine words, but were unwilling to pour their blood and treasure. This left a vacuum for Putin, who backed Assad with military support, razed civilian areas – not least Aleppo – in a monstrous dress rehearsal for what he would do in Ukraine.

Half a million men, women and children died in Syria. Six million people were forced from their homes, sparking a refugee crisis that continues today.

Even when Assad used chemical weapons, crossing the so-called “red line” of Barack Obama and David Cameron, the West did not intervene. All this led Putin to calculate – wrongly, it turned out – that the Free World would be on standby if he invaded Ukraine.

That is precisely what makes Assad’s rehabilitation so sinister. Putin will now think that if the Syrian dictator lasts long enough and is reintegrated into the international community, Russia, which has far more resources than Syria, can and should continue to do so.

Putin doesn’t have to win his dirty war in Ukraine – he just has to drag on like a “frozen” conflict. In this scenario, neither side can claim victory, but the rest of the world is destabilized. Wait long enough, he may think, and the war will gradually unravel.

Pictured: Meeting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) with Deputy Governor of the Mecca region of Saudi Arabia, Prince Badr Bin Sultan (R), on the eve of the Arab League summit, on King Abdulaziz International Airport, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on May 18, 2023

Pictured: Syrians protest in Azaz, in rebel-held northern Aleppo province, condemning the Arab League’s initiative to invite the Syrian president to their summit on May 19, 2023

South Africa, India and Brazil – to name just three countries – have already refused to participate in the sanctions against Moscow. African countries suffer from a shortage of grain and other vital foodstuffs.

Meanwhile, NATO’s stockpiles of anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons are rapidly depleting – and Ukrainians depend on Western weapons and money for their survival.

Ukraine’s allies may ultimately decide that the war must end, with or without a total victory for Kiev. Many Americans agree with Donald Trump that the US should spend its money at home, not on foreign wars.

If US aid is withdrawn, the rest of NATO will struggle to maintain its support. That is exactly what happened in Afghanistan in 2021, where the capitulation of the West brought the Taliban back to power.

Do not doubt it: if we leave Ukraine, other dominoes will fall.

Putin will view former Soviet republics, such as oil-rich Kazakhstan, as new prizes worth grabbing. Predatory regimes will draw similar conclusions, such as Communist China, desperate to conquer Taiwan.

As cheap propaganda, the Assad regime is known to produce photographs of now-departed Western leaders who once condemned his war.

The faces of Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Cameron and Theresa May are all crossed out – while that of the Syrian dictator glows with contempt. The message is: they are gone, but he remains – despite the price his own people have paid in blood.

Still ensconced in the Kremlin, will Putin wave similar photos of Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Volodymyr Zelensky in years to come?

The answer to that question depends on our actions in the coming months. And the sight of Assad this week should be enough to ensure our course remains unwavering.