Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a news conference following trilateral talks with his counterparts Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in Ankara, Turkey September 16, 2019. Sputnik/Valery Melnikov/Kremlin via REUTERS
Trump administration officials have blamed
Iran for the September
14 attack on Saudi oil facilities, but Tehran has hotly denied that it is
responsible. Moscow’s initial response was to warn against jumping to “hasty
conclusions” about where the attack came from—a clear signal that the
Kremlin does not want to see Washington take forceful action against Tehran. However,
at the recent Russian-Turkish-Iranian summit in Ankara, Russian President Vladimir
Putin stated that Moscow
was willing to sell Russian air defense missiles to Saudi Arabia.
“We are ready to help Saudi Arabia protect their
people,” Putin said. “They need to make clever decisions, as Iran did by buying
our S-300, as [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan did by deciding to buy
the most advanced S-400 air defense systems. These kinds of systems are capable
of defending any kind of infrastructure in Saudi Arabia from any kind of
attack.”
The Western press has focused on how Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif appeared to be laughing as
they listened to the translation of Putin’s remarks. It has even been suggested that Putin himself
was not being serious, and that his statements were instead intended to “troll”
Trump. But whatever the Iranian reaction to it, Putin’s offer to sell air
defense missiles to Saudi Arabia should be seen as a serious one.
Moscow and Riyadh have been discussing the possibility
of the Kingdom buying Russian S-400 air defense missiles for several years now,
but an actual deal has not been reached—partly, it is believed, due to US pressure
on the Saudis not to go through with it. Moscow may see the recent attack on
Saudi Arabia as an opportunity to persuade the Saudis that the United States cannot
adequately protect them, but that Russia can.
Further, while Putin undoubtedly does not want to see Washington
retaliate militarily against Iran in response to the attack on Saudi oil
facilities, his offer to sell air defense missiles to Riyadh signals that he
does not want to see any further such attacks against the Kingdom either. While it is well known that Russia and Iran
cooperate closely (especially in Syria), Putin has also sought to build good
relations with Israel and Saudi Arabia—Iran’s main Middle Eastern adversaries.
In Syria, Russia’s response to Israeli fears that both
Iran and its ally Hezbollah are threatening to the Jewish state has been to
take little or no action beyond verbal admonishment for Israeli attacks against
them. Indeed, the Israeli military reportedly informs the Russian military in
Syria about its plans in order to make sure that Russian men and materiel are
not harmed. The Iranians can hardly be pleased about this.
Rouhani’s and Zarif’s laughter at Putin’s offer to
sell air defense missiles to Saudi Arabia, then, may not have been a sign that
they did not take his offer seriously. Instead, it may have been more
reflective of their dismay and resignation about how, just as Putin was not
supporting Iran against Israel, he was now signaling that he would not support
it against Saudi Arabia either.
But whatever the reason for Rouhani and Zarif laughing
while Putin made his offer to Saudi Arabia, they may hope that Putin believes
the explanation offered here about it being an expression of Iranian dismay. For
if Putin actually believed that they were laughing because they did not take
his offer to the Saudis seriously, this could make Putin more determined to
sell air defense missiles to the Kingdom.
And while Washington is as opposed to Riyadh buying
Russian S-400s as it has been to Ankara doing so, such a deal might actually
further US interests. Both the Obama and Trump administrations hoped to drive a
wedge between Moscow and Tehran, but failed to do so. The Russian sale of
S-400s to Riyadh, however, might accomplish this far more successfully than any
US action could.
Mark
N. Katz is a professor of government and politics at the George Mason
University Schar School of Policy and Government, and a nonresident senior fellow
at the Atlantic Council.
Further reading
Sat, Sep 14, 2019
The ten-drone attack on Aramco’s Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia on September 14 is a sign that the Houthis suffer from false confidence. Snubbing talks and launching attacks is not a way to garner sympathy from the United States or the international community.
New Atlanticist
by
Kirsten Fontenrose
Mon, Sep 16, 2019
Atlantic Council experts react to the September 14 attacks on Saudi oil facilities and what it means for global energy markets and the wider region.
New Atlanticist
by
David A. Wemer
Tue, Sep 17, 2019
The latest attacks on the Arab Gulf oil industry seem to be part of a strategy by Iran to warn the Gulf states that it can block all oil shipments, if it sees fit. One of the warnings was the attack on three tankers at anchor off Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman.
EnergySource
by
Jean-Francois Seznec
While Iran's president and foreign minister laughed at the Russian president's statement, Putin offer should been seen as a serious one.
| 
