The king of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud this week arrived in Turkey at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. During the visit, he will participate in the XIII summit of the Organization of Islamic cooperation (OIC).
On what topics can be discussed by the two leaders, what is the attitude of Iran to this issue, and its plans for the region from this meeting, Sputnik asked the orientalist Igor Pankratenko.
Main competitors
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are the main rivals for influence in the region. It is a regional power and, of course, the relationship is either competing, or hostile. Therefore, any contact CSA with Turkey will not be welcomed in Iran, the contacts of the Turks and Iranians will be negatively perceived by the Saudis is a kind of daily political life in the middle East, the expert said.
Of course, Iran will perceive the visit of the Saudi king to Turkey with wariness and suspicion, but without any serious response.
The theme of the day
The main issue on the agenda of the KSA and Turkey is, of course, Syria, the harmonization of policies of both countries regarding the Syrian conflict.
It should be noted that between Ankara and Riyadh in the Syrian issue, there are many contradictions. First and foremost, they are related to the fact that the Saudis are betting on religious opposition, and the Turks a big bet on the secular opposition, noted orientalist. And now they need somehow to coordinate their positions on this issue.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Turkey today is a very tense relationship with the U.S., the Turks do not like extremely that the States play the Kurdish card in Syria. And they would like to clarify the position of Riyadh on this painful issue, the idea of federalization of Syria, that is put forward by the Americans and supported by some politicians outside the United States.
Everyone understands that the federalization is the process temporary, then the country will disintegrate, as is happening today with Iraq, highlights Pankratenko. And of course, security in the region will not add it.
Economic cooperation
In addition, said the interlocutor of Sputnik, will be discussed and the issue of economic cooperation. What is the specific question? The CSA recently announced modernization plans and are already actively works in this direction.
Modernization in Saudi means investing in a profitable venture abroad, the purchase of shares in the shares in the capital, he points out. And since Turkey now is very interested in foreign investments, then this issue would be discussed by the parties.
Alliance will
Now in the Russian expert community will appear a lot of versions about a certain Alliance that arises between the Turks and the Saudis. Commenting on this subject, Pankratenko indicated that he is skeptical about the conclusion of any long-term Alliance, because of the contradictions between the two States for influence in the middle East persists, it remains unchanged, so we can talk not about the Alliance, and about a certain coordination of positions, as well as on temporary tactical Union, he said.
The region waits for nothing
What to expect of this meeting to the region? According to Pankratenko, there is nothing good do not wait. Rather there prevails an optimistic point of view in accordance with an optimistic anecdote "a pessimist say, but it can't get worse, the optimist says: will be, will be."
The region today is at the stage of reformatting the hard. There is a change of political landscape, changes on the political map, in the scenario, the alliances, the alliances, the system of checks and balances.
The meeting in Turkey will not have crucial importance, concludes orientalist. According to him, it's just one of the reactions of regional powers in the chaos and stagnation, which arose as a result of not very smart, the intervention of external players.
Source: http://ru.sputnik.az/politics/20160412/404614231.html#ixzz45cVz8z1B
Tags: Iran , Russia , Azerbaijan , Saudi Arabia