Iran Press/ Middle East: "Riyadh is the United States’ strategic partner in two fields, oil production and defense. They have maintained allied relations since Saudi Arabia declared independence in 1932. However, Washington’s attitude to Riyadh was that of a senior during the Cold War and it has been hegemonic since the 1990s," Research Fellow at the Department of Middle and Post-Soviet East of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences Vasily Ostanin-Golovnya noted, according to Izvestia. "Russia has a certain advantage over the US. There was a very successful visit by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the parties reached some agreements and the kingdom is unlikely to breach them," the expert explained.
"Cracks between the US and Saudi Arabia appeared long before the Ukrainian crisis, which prompted the kingdom and the United Arab Emirates to show defiance and refuse to increase oil output following Washington’s embargo on Russian energy. There is also a personal aspect. The country’s actual leader Mohammed bin Salman has complicated relations with the United States’ Democratic establishment," Ostanin-Golovnya pointed out.
"The Saudis have no reason to make agreements with the Democrats," orientalist scholar Andrey Ontikov emphasized. "The Saudis are well aware that if the Americans succeed in suppressing Russia one way or another or putting really strong pressure on Moscow, then Saudi Arabia may be the next in line to undergo ‘democratic changes,’ that is, the processes that took place during the Arab Spring. The Saudis don’t need any of that. They would like to have an alternative to the US. Russia can become such an alternative," the expert added.
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