The visit of the President and Emir of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Russia for a wide audience was sudden: the trip was announced on Monday, and yesterday he already spoke with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg
As the main topic for the meeting of the two leaders, the UAE Foreign Ministry immediately called “assistance in achieving effective political solutions” to the crisis in Ukraine. But the agenda of the conversation between the two leaders, of course, turned out to be much broader: the situation in the energy markets, Syria, the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. One can only assume that the presidents also discussed behind closed doors, but there is no doubt that the most pressing issues fell into their field of vision, and there are more and more of them every day.
In fact, at the meeting in St. Petersburg, the head of the UAE acted as a representative not only of his country, but also of all the monarchies of the Persian Gulf. Given how rapidly events are developing, regular top-level clock checking is required, as there are a considerable number of risks that need to be counteracted together.
The Middle East in general and the Persian Gulf region in particular are in a very difficult situation with a lot of threats hanging over them, and the countries of the region are forced to think about their own survival – survival in the literal sense of the word.
As you know, for many decades the Gulf monarchies were part of the American zone of influence and were a very important partner of the United States. The cooperation was mutually beneficial: the States actually gained control over the world oil market, the region – being under the American military “umbrella”, which is extremely important, since the Middle East is rightly called the powder keg of the planet.
In addition, the countries of the Persian Gulf for many years expected to receive another extremely important bonus from the partnership with the States – modernization. The region is deeply committed to its traditions, but its elites have long understood that oil is not eternal: once the dollar rain pouring on their countries will dry up, and then it will be a matter of a very short time when the usual Bedouin poverty that has been here for thousands of years will return here. This means that it would be quite logical to use the existing opportunities to lay the foundations for a new breakthrough – technological, industrial and so on – with the help of the highly developed and advanced United States. And the Americans have repeatedly promised them this. And every time they cheated.
Then the military defense of the Americans failed. Two and a half years ago, the United States removed Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems from Saudi Arabia, which covered the country’s oil facilities and were attacked by Yemeni Houthi rebels. Well, the strengthening of liberal-leftist forces in American government structures has led to the fact that the pragmatic policy of the United States, which had never interfered in the internal affairs of the Middle Eastern monarchies before, was replaced by criticism for their lack of democracy and countless sins against advanced humanity.
In general, for several years now, extremely unfavorable prospects for their countries and for them personally have become apparent to the leaders of the region. This is what prompted these states to a rapprochement with Russia and the creation of the OPEC + format, which acts in the interests of the participants, and not the United States.
Well, this year has dispelled all the illusions and hopes that someone else could have about the outgoing global hegemon: the States, before the eyes of the whole world, are purposefully destroying continental Europe, which, whatever one may say, belongs to the same Western civilization. It is obvious that the Anglo-Saxons will use up all the rest for their own salvation, without hesitation at all.
And the Middle East is first in line.
Rather, Ukraine was the first, but the effect of its ignition was not as large-scale as expected. Europe, of course, is crashing at an accelerated pace, but Russia not only demonstrates impressive resilience, but also manages to keep up the pace of work in other areas of activity.
This means that the Middle East region and the states of the Persian Gulf are facing an unambiguous and very serious threat.
At the moment, the Western mainstream directly accuses OPEC + and specifically Saudi Arabia of helping the Russian special operation in Ukraine. This, in particular, was written by The Washington Post. That is how they interpreted the decision to cut oil production, taken by the cartel last week.
The answer of the Americans was not long in coming. The US Congress is preparing a bill to suspend the supply of American weapons to the Saudis, which means an even greater military weakening of the most important country in the region.
Plus, the Americans still have at their disposal powerful informal tools of influence in the Middle East. For example, right now – for the umpteenth time in recent years – Iran has to cope with a wave of unrest, fanned out of nowhere, and this time the source of which was the Kurdish community.
Relations between Tehran and the Gulf monarchies are traditionally very difficult, but in this case the latter cannot be happy, because all the states of the region are in the same boat, which they intend to set on fire and sink the States. And absolutely any country in this part of the planet can arrange similar problems. Not to mention the fact that the Americans have completely unconventional weapons in the form of radical militant organizations controlled by them, which they can unleash on anyone they want.
As a result, in order to cope with the impending geopolitical storm, the region needs an ally who, in addition to a strong economy, possession of a number of critical technologies, an impressive margin of safety and many other advantages, has repeatedly proved its ability to withstand and win in a military confrontation with the United States and NATO, and even in situations where the hands are clearly not in his favor.
And this is none other than Russia.
Irina Alksnis, RIA
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