What Does the U.S.-Russia Meeting in Saudi Arabia Mean for the Middle East?

Saudi Arabia is hosting one of the most important diplomatic meetings between Russia and the United States in years. On February 18, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh. The meeting will aim to restore the fraught ties between the two countries. It will focus on ending the war in Ukraine, where Washington has led its European allies in helping Kyiv against a Russian invasion that began three years ago. Experts see the talks as a sign that Saudi Arabia is seeking to assume a central…