Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of National Defense of Greece Nikos Dendias and Nikos Panagiotopoulos signed in the capital of the Saudi Kingdom, in every sense, a landmark “Agreement on the settlement of the status of the Greek Armed Forces in Saudi Arabia”.
From the Saudi side, the heir to the throne, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Kingdom, Prince Khalid ibn Salman Al Saud, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, took part in the negotiations.
Behind this insignificant bureaucracy lies the achievement of a formal agreement between Athens and Riyadh on the lease of several Greek Patriot air defense batteries. Moreover, this is not only about technology. Batteries are rented together with their calculations for a total of up to 120 people.
There is no exact data at the moment, however, those close to the negotiations do not exclude that the Greek crews will further act not only as instructors for training local personnel, but will themselves take up combat duty for the protection and defense of the KSA skies. Including, against the strikes of the Yemeni Houthis.
Under the same agreement, Greek military aircraft will join the operations of the Multinational Force (US, Britain, France, Italy, Jordan and Pakistan) in the region “to help strengthen Saudi Arabia’s defense against terrorism”.
It may seem that the cunning Saudis managed to find two in one. They signed the Greeks to cover the Kingdom from Houthi missile strikes and at the same time created the grounds for expanding tourism, promising both countries to increase income, especially needed in the context of a covid global economic crisis. And all this is directed against Iran, which provides military and financial support to the Houthis.
But in reality, the Greco-Saudi rapprochement is associated with the strengthening of the Gas Society in the Mediterranean Sea, whose members are Greece, Cyprus, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Italy, where the Greeks are drawing the Saudis, but in which none of the participants fundamentally wants to see Ankara.
Thus, there are clearly visible features of the formation in the Mediterranean of a collective multilateral military alliance, organizationally reminiscent of the North Atlantic Alliance, only within the framework of the Middle East region and aimed against Iran and, oddly enough, Turkey.
Moreover, this military alliance is actively strengthening. For example, last week Athens signed a $ 1.65 billion contract with Tel Aviv for 22 years to establish by the Israelis in Greece an international flight training center for Greek Air Force pilots, modeled on the Israeli Air Force Flight Academy. The press service of the Israeli Defense Ministry called the contract the largest in the history of the country.
It should also be noted that participation in Greece in the Mediterranean Gas Society still serves as a link between Western NATO and its Middle East counterpart.
However, it is difficult to say here whether the North Atlantic Alliance wins or loses from this. Quite the opposite, since an actively forming military grouping of one NATO member against another member is unlikely to benefit the North Atlantic Alliance. But who is the doctor to them?
RUSSTRAT