KERAJAAN SAUDI YANG SEMAKIN BODOH: MELETAKKAN LAPORAN TENTANG AMARAN RUSIA UNTUK MENYERANG ARAB SAUDI PADA TEMPATNYA Ia merujuk kep...
12:59:00 PM
KERAJAAN SAUDI YANG SEMAKIN BODOH:
MELETAKKAN LAPORAN TENTANG AMARAN RUSIA UNTUK MENYERANG ARAB SAUDI PADA TEMPATNYA
Ia merujuk kepada pertemuan antara Putera Bandar Ketua Perisikan Arab Saudi dengan Presiden Putin pada 31 Julai lepas di mana
Putera Bandar membuat beberapa tawaran lumayan kepada Rusia dengan
syarat Rusia tidak menyokong Syria dalam konflik yang berterusan itu.
Mengenai sumber laporan asal yang katakan telah dibocorkan, tidak ada
sebarang rujukan yang menunjukkan Presiden Putin membuat kenyataan
tersebut secara spesifik. Namun apa yang jelas adalah ugutan
terselindung yang dibuat oleh Putera Bandar bahawa sekiranya Kremlin
tidak bersetuju dengan tawaran Saudi, bahawa pihaknya tidak dapat
memberi jaminan keselamatan keatas Rusia dari serangan teroris Chechen
yang menurut pengakuannya sendiri adalah di bawah kawalan Saudi!
Itulah kenyataan dan tindakan yang paling bodoh bagi kerajaan Saudi
memandangkan bahawa Presiden Putin adalah bekas ahli perisikan KGB yang
tersohor dan Rusia sebagai negara yang memiliki antara arsenal
persenjataan yang tercanggih di dunia, sudah tentunya tidak gentar
samasekali untuk turun berperang sekali lagi.
Maka sekiranya
benar sekalipun laporan yang menyatakan Rusia akan bertindakbalas secara
besar-besaran keatas Saudi, ia bukanlah suatu yang memeranjatkan bila
Rusia menganggap serangan keatas Syria sebagai serangan keatas Russia
sendiri. Maka Kerajaan Saudi hanya sewajarnya menyalahkan diri sendiri
kerana kebodohan mereka yang bakal melibatkan seluruh dunia Islam
terpalit sama pada kepentingan rakus mereka .
Bandar told
Putin, “There are many common values and goals that bring us together,
most notably the fight against terrorism and extremism all over the
world. Russia, the US, the EU and the Saudis agree on promoting and
consolidating international peace and security. The terrorist threat is
growing in light of the phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring. We have
lost some regimes. And what we got in return were terrorist experiences,
as evidenced by the experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and
the extremist groups in Libya. ...
As an example, I can give
you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on
the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security
of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian
territory’s direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not
scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will
have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.”
Putin
thanked King Abdullah for his greetings and Bandar for his exposition,
but then he said to Bandar, “We know that you have supported the Chechen
terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly
talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common
objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are
interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and
strong principles.”
Summary :
Details
have emerged about a July meeting on Syria, Egypt and other regional
issues between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi intelligence
chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
Publisher:
As-Safir (Lebanon)
Original Title: As-Safir Publishes a Comprehensive Report about Bandar’s
Meeting with Putin: ‘You Get the Investments and the Oil Price ... But
Give Us Syria!’
First Published:
August 21, 2013
Posted on:
August 22 2013
Translated by:
Rani Geha
and Sahar GhoussoubA diplomatic report about the “stormy meeting” in July between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan concluded
that the region stretching from North Africa to Chechnya and from Iran
to Syria — in other words, the entire Middle East — has come under the
influence of an open US-Russian face-off and that “it is not unlikely
that things [will] take a dramatic turn in Lebanon, in both the
political and security senses, in light of the major Saudi decision to
respond to Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian crisis.”
The report starts by presenting the conditions under which the
Russian-Saudi meeting was convened. It states that Prince Bandar, in
coordination with the Americans and some European partners, proposed to
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz that Bandar visit Moscow and employ
the carrot-and-stick approach, which is used in most negotiators, and
offer the Russian leadership political, economic, military and security
enticements in return for concessions on several regional issues, in
particular Syria and Iran.
King Abdullah agreed with the proposal and contacted President Putin on
July 30. In a conversation that lasted only a few minutes, they agreed
to Bandar’s visit and to keep it under wraps. Bandar arrived in Moscow.
The visit was secret. The Saudi Embassy did not follow the usual
protocol for Saudi officials visiting Russia.
In Moscow, a preliminary session was held at Russian military
intelligence headquarters between Bandar and the director of Russian
Military Intelligence, Gen. Igor Sergon. The meeting focused on security
cooperation between the two countries. Bandar then visited Putin’s
house on the outskirts of the Russian capital, where they held a
closed-door bilateral meeting that lasted four hours. They discussed the
agenda, which consisted of bilateral issues and a number of regional
and international matters in which the two countries share interest.
Bilateral relations
At the bilateral level, Bandar relayed the Saudi king’s greetings to
Putin and the king’s emphasis on the importance of developing the
bilateral relationship. He also told Putin that the king would bless any
understanding reached during the visit. Bandar also said, however, that
“any understanding we reach in this meeting will not only be a
Saudi-Russian understanding, but will also be an American-Russian
understanding. I have spoken with the Americans before the visit, and
they pledged to commit to any understandings that we may reach,
especially if we agree on the approach to the Syrian issue.”
Bandar stressed the importance of developing relations between the two
countries, saying that the logic of interests can reveal large areas of
cooperation. He gave several examples in the economic, investment, oil
and military arenas.
Bandar told Putin, “There are many common values and goals that bring
us together, most notably the fight against terrorism and extremism all
over the world. Russia, the US, the EU and the Saudis agree on
promoting and consolidating international peace and security. The
terrorist threat is growing in light of the phenomena spawned by the
Arab Spring. We have lost some regimes. And what we got in return were
terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt and the extremist groups in Libya. ... As an example, I can give
you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on
the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security
of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian
territory’s direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not
scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will
have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.”
Putin thanked King Abdullah for his greetings and Bandar for his
exposition, but then he said to Bandar, “We know that you have supported
the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you
have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the
common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We
are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and
strong principles.”
Bandar said that the matter is not limited to the kingdom and that some
countries have overstepped the roles drawn for them, such as Qatar and
Turkey. He added, “We said so directly to the Qataris and to the Turks.
We rejected their unlimited support to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
and elsewhere. The Turks’ role today has become similar to Pakistan’s
role in the Afghan war. We do not favor extremist religious regimes, and
we wish to establish moderate regimes in the region. It is worthwhile
to pay attention to and to follow up on Egypt’s experience. We will
continue to support the [Egyptian] army, and we will support Defense
Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi because
he is keen on having good relations with us and with you. And we
suggest to you to be in contact with him, to support him and to give all
the conditions for the success of this experiment. We are ready to hold
arms deals with you in exchange for supporting these regimes,
especially Egypt.”
Economic and oil cooperation
Then Bandar discussed the potential cooperation between the two
countries if an understanding could be reached on a number of issues,
especially Syria. He discussed at length the matter of oil and
investment cooperation, saying, “Let us examine how to put together a
unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to
agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price
stable in global oil markets. ... We understand Russia’s great interest
in the oil and gas present in the Mediterranean Sea from Israel to
Cyprus through Lebanon and Syria. And we understand the importance of
the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing
with that. We can cooperate in this area as well as in the areas of
establishing refineries and petrochemical industries. The kingdom can
provide large multi-billion-dollar investments in various fields in the
Russian market. What’s important is to conclude political understandings
on a number of issues, particularly Syria and Iran.”
Putin responded that the proposals about oil and gas, economic and
investment cooperation deserve to be studied by the relevant ministries
in both countries.
Syria first
Bandar discussed the Syrian issue at length. He explained how the
kingdom’s position had evolved on the Syrian crisis since the Daraa
incident all the way to what is happening today. He said, “The Syrian
regime is finished as far as we and the majority of the Syrian people
are concerned. [The Syrian people] will not allow President Bashar
al-Assad to remain at the helm. The key to the relations between our two
countries starts by understanding our approach to the Syrian issue. So
you have to stop giving [the Syrian regime] political support,
especially at the UN Security Council, as well as military and economic
support. And we guarantee you that Russia’s interests in Syria and on
the Mediterranean coast will not be affected one bit. In the future,
Syria will be ruled by a moderate and democratic regime that will be
directly sponsored by us and that will have an interest in understanding
Russia's interests and role in the region.”
Russia’s intransigence is to Iran’s benefit
Bandar also presented Saudi Arabia’s views about Iran’s role in the
region, especially in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Bahrain
and other countries. He said he hoped that the Russians would understand
that Russia's interests and the interests of the Gulf states are one in
the face of Iranian greed and nuclear challenge.
Putin gave his country’s position on the Arab Spring developments,
especially about what has happened in Libya, saying, “We are very
concerned about Egypt. And we understand what the Egyptian army is
doing. But we are very cautious in approaching what’s happening because
we are afraid that things may slide toward an Egyptian civil war, which
would be too costly for the Egyptians, the Arabs and the international
community. I wanted to do a brief visit to Egypt. And the matter is
still under discussion.”
Regarding Iran, Putin said to Bandar that Iran is a neighbor, that
Russia and Iran are bound by relations that go back centuries, and that
there are common and tangled interests between them. Putin said, “We
support the Iranian quest to obtain nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes.
And we helped them develop their facilities in this direction. Of
course, we will resume negotiations with them as part of the 5P+1 group.
I will meet with President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the
Central Asia summit and we will discuss a lot of bilateral, regional and
international issues. We will inform him that Russia is completely
opposed to the UN Security Council imposing new sanctions on Iran. We
believe that the sanctions imposed against Iran and Iranians are unfair
and that we will not repeat the experience again.”
Erdogan to visit Moscow in September
Regarding the Turkish issue, Putin spoke of his friendship with Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan; “Turkey is also a neighboring
country with which we have common interests. We are keen to develop our
relations in various fields. During the Russian-Turkish meeting, we
scrutinized the issues on which we agree and disagree. We found out that
we have more converging than diverging views. I have already informed
the Turks, and I will reiterate my stance before my friend Erdogan, that
what is happening in Syria necessitates a different approach on their
part. Turkey will not be immune to Syria’s bloodbath. The Turks ought to
be more eager to find a political settlement to the Syrian crisis. We
are certain that the political settlement in Syria is inevitable, and
therefore they ought to reduce the extent of damage. Our disagreement
with them on the Syrian issue does not undermine other understandings
between us at the level of economic and investment cooperation. We have
recently informed them that we are ready to cooperate with them to build
two nuclear reactors. This issue will be on the agenda of the Turkish
prime minister during his visit to Moscow in September.”
Putin: Our stance on Assad will not change
Regarding the Syrian issue, the Russian president responded to Bandar,
saying, “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the
Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and
not those liver eaters. During the Geneva I Conference, we agreed with
the Americans on a package of understandings, and they agreed that the
Syrian regime will be part of any settlement. Later on, they decided to
renege on Geneva I. In all meetings of Russian and American experts, we
reiterated our position. In his upcoming meeting with his American
counterpart John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will
stress the importance of making every possible effort to rapidly reach a
political settlement to the Syrian crisis so as to prevent further
bloodshed.”
As soon as Putin finished his speech, Prince Bandar warned that in
light of the course of the talks, things were likely to intensify,
especially in the Syrian arena, although he appreciated the Russians’
understanding of Saudi Arabia’s position on Egypt and their readiness to
support the Egyptian army despite their fears for Egypt's future.
The head of the Saudi intelligence services said that the dispute over
the approach to the Syrian issue leads to the conclusion that “there is
no escape from the military option, because it is the only currently
available choice given that the political settlement ended in stalemate.
We believe that the Geneva II Conference will be very difficult in
light of this raging situation.”
At the end of the meeting, the Russian and Saudi sides agreed to
continue talks, provided that the current meeting remained under wraps.
This was before one of the two sides leaked it via the Russian press
