No deal offering rich arms contacts and protection of Moscow’s gas interests in exchange for Russia withdrawing support for Syrian President Assad was discussed during Vladimir Putin’s talks with Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar, the Kremlin said.
“Putin didn’t discuss any deals,” the Russian president’s aide, Yury Ushakov, answered when asked by RT about media reports, which claimed that a $15 billion Saudi offer was put on the table during the Moscow talks on July 31.
“Specific issues of military-technical cooperation development and other aspects of bilateral cooperation weren’t on the agenda,” he stressed.
According to Ushakov, the talks were organized to clarifying the stance which each country takes in the Syrian conflict.
Despite having opposing views on the issue, Moscow and Riyadh have “demonstrated a similar amount of concern”about the events in the war-torn Middle Eastern state, the aide said.
Ushakov also informed that Bandar had other contacts in Moscow besides meeting with Putin, but the Kremlin is unaware of the contents of those negotiations.
Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Chief of General Intelligence and Secretary-General of the National Security Council of Saudi Arabia, during a meeting in Novo-Ogaryovo residence with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 31 July 2013. (Aleksey Nikolskyi / RIA Novosti)
Moscow’s official comments come after more than a week since the meeting took place, while the Saudi side remains silent on the agenda of Prince Bandar’s talks in the Russian capital.
The terms of the bargain reportedly included Kremlin dropping its support of Assad, as well as not opposing any future Security Council resolutions on Syria.
An undisclosed Arab diplomat told AFP that the Russian president listened to the offer and rejected it, saying that “his country wouldn’t change its strategy” of backing the Syrian government.
Bandar allegedly replied by saying that the only option left in Syria is a military one – and that Russia should forget about the Geneva-2 international peace conference because the opposition would not attend, the source said.
Efforts to stage the peace conference – which has been put forth by Washington and Moscow – have so far been fruitless, mainly because of the absence of unity within the opposition ranks.
The civil war between the government forces and the Western-backed rebels is raging in Syria since March 2011, leading to the deaths of over 100,000 people, according to the UN data.
I thought the Syrian opposition was an indigenous effort? Why is it that Saudi Arabia is deciding it’s foreign policy? Just more proof that the ones who actually control the opposition are zionists.
The horrible carnage that has engulfed Syria will continue because of Putin who has blocked all efforts by the UN to mediate the crisis…the blood of 100 thousand people in on the hands of the Russians and these efforts by Saudis to stop the killing have also been stopped also…the world will now have to standby and watch as the numbers of dead go up and the country is turned to rubble…bad decision by Putin and Russia will be blamed for its failure to act toward peace…
The saudis along with israel and the US started this carnage. And saudis are the ones trying to create peace? Didnt u read the article? While Putin is trying to bring about a political solution the saudis are saying that since Russia didnt fall for their bribe they’re going to continue the violence. But then again u have never been one to use ur brain. I didnt expect anything less from u.
when there were uprising every where against dictatorship or you can say transition of power from Russian block to US, there was real fight between people and dictator government where US and Russia were in proxy war. But suddenly we saw an uprising in Bahrain which was induced by Iranian intelligence with out taking any Muslim country in confidence here stars the problem.Then the Saudis retaliated by supporting syrian rebels. And now the war has divided between Russia Iran and US Saudia. If Saudis are doing zionist services then Iran is also part of Zionist agenda dividing arab muslims in ethnic issues. If Iran would take confidence of other muslim world before trying to create an uprising in Bahrain we will never see such divide in muslims which is totally benefiting US Israel and Russia
ummm no…i don’t know where u get ur information from but i suggest u discontinue getting it from there. bahrain wasn’t even where the “arab spring” started, it was tunisia. and the saudis didn’t retaliate to anything. read seymour hersh’s 2007 article ANNALS OF NATIONAL SECURITY THE REDIRECTION. read it, compare it to what’s happening today and then come back to me. this is only one of countless articles…
It’s a conspiracy to blame Iran on the uprising regarding Bahrain. As I hope for the Bahrainis, they will soon get what they achieve, as also for the Syrians; Democracy. Iran is not a part of the Zionist agenda, as a matter a fact, they are greatest enemy to them, since they won’t bow down to them, because of the nuclear power production. But Saudis are the biggest disgrace to Islamic World, when they financially supports and send weapons to these Takfiris while supporting the barbaric regimes of Egypt & Bahrain, who are both Pro-Western!
Well Bahrain and Syria are 2 different countries in 2 different types of situation.
Saudis are ofcourse the American and israeli puppets while Iran on other hand is the biggest digrace to Islam. A country where hatred is filled against the Sahabas, wife of prophet and calling Quran for being fabricated by Uthman ibn Afan(R.A). Lets talk fair here.
Before we start going after the Takfiris lets go back in histroy and see where Iran has supported USA for the invasion of Iraq and Afganistan. Iraq for getting rid of Saddam and installing a shia regime instead. In Afganistan they got rid of taliban and succussfully installed Shia regime (Karzai)instead. So in this case Iran has been a pro-western support. This can not be denied at all.
Before pointing fingers at others lets start with looking within our own yards. Nobody is innocent here in politics.