Pakistan(National Times)- Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan mulled over the recent developments in the Middle East during the former’s “private visit” to the Emirates. The meeting which took place on Sunday, hours after a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Kuwait, came in the wake of the seizure of Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo by rebels. During the meeting, the two royals “reviewed the latest regional and international developments, with a particular focus on the Middle East”, said the UAE’sofficial WAM news agency. “They underscored the need for concerted efforts to maintain regional stability and prevent the region [from] descending into new crises that could threaten its security,” it added. The recent shock offensive by Syrian rebels has been termed an attempt to redraw the regional map in line with the United States’ interest by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad whose country has been at war since he launched a cracked down on pro-democracy protests in 2011 — a conflict which has drawn in foreign powers and has left 500,000 people massacred. Meanwhile, the MBS visit, the first since 2021 as per the Emirati media, follows his meeting with the UAE ruler in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam in May earlier this year in the wake of rumours suggesting a rift between the two countries. The UAE president, 63, was once seen as a mentor to the 39-year-old Saudi heir who is aggressively reshaping his country’s oil-reliant economy. It is to be noted that the Gulf states were initially key backers of Syrian opposition groups fighting President Assad’s government since the Arab Spring protests of 2011. But they later reversed course, with the UAE restoring diplomatic ties in 2018. Riyadh re-established ties with Damascus last year after inviting Assad to an Arab League meeting in Jeddah, ending Syria’s regional isolation.