Putin letter to Arab summit triggers strong Saudi attack

Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that a letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya.

"We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any external interference," Putin said in the letter.

His comments triggered a sharp attack from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

"He speaks about the problems in the Middle East as though Russia is not influencing these problems," he told the summit right after the letter was read out.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia have been cool over Moscow's support for Assad, whom Riyadh opposes. The civil war between Assad's forces and rebels has cost more than 200,000 lives in four years.

"They speak about tragedies in Syria while they are an essential part of the tragedies befalling the Syrian people, by arming the Syrian regime above and beyond what it needs to fight its own people," Prince Saud said.

"I hope that the Russian president corrects this so that the Arab world's relations with Russia can be at their best level."

The Saudi rebuke may have been awkward for summit host Egypt, which depends heavily on billions of dollars in support from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab allies, but has also improved ties with Moscow.

In February, Putin received a grand welcome in Egypt, signalling a rapprochement.

the Iranians put 19,000 troops into Syria almost four years ago, to prop up the monstrously violent hereditary dictatorship of Assad Junior
the Soetero administration failed to do much of anything in Syria, giving lip service at best to supporting the indigenous revolution under way
the Turks stepped in to support the FSA, which got its ass handed to it by al Qaeda affiliates; meanwhile...
Iran, sometimes using its proxy Qatar:
- funded al Qaeda in Iraq
- funded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
- funded Boko Haram in western Africa
- funded the overthrow of Ghaddafy in Libya, and the subsequent murders of US embassy personnel
- funded the Shiite jihadists in Yemen and allied itself with the longterm dictator of Yemen after his ouster
- funded Hamas
- funded Hizbollah
- funded other thugs around the world
the Iranians got the Russians to help them with their nuclear weapons program
the Iranians got the Russians and North Koreans to help them with their missile program
the Russians also backed Assad Junior in Syria
the Gulf Cooperation Council supported the Egyptian majority and Morsi was overthrown
- Assad Junior strutted and clucked his satisfaction about Morsi's overthrow
- Israel expressed quiet approval
- Iran screamed about his overthrow
- Erdogan in Turkey scolded and bitched about Morsi's overthrow
- Soetero and his gang of criminals, who'd backed Morsi to the hilt, threatened to pull US aid to Egypt
- Rand Paul also opposed the overthrow of Morsi
ISIS went from being a storefront to being a far-flung success, from the Middle East in the middle to southern Asia in the east to Africa in the west
ISIS overran a big chunk of Iraq, almost without opposition
Iran let their Iraq puppet regime oust one puppet, install a weaker one, while turning the various Shiite jihadists in Iraq into a more or less unified force under Iranian command
ISIS became a threat to al Qaeda in Syria, as well as the Kurds
the Turks did nothing to resist or obstruct ISIS, instead undermining the Kurds
the Iranians [ditto]
Soetero helped out with some airstrikes
the US convinced the UAE and Jordan to help the Kurds
Jordan lost a pilot to ISIS executioners, and responded by executing some ISIS criminals in their custody
Saudi Arabia hired Pakistani troops for national defense
Yemen disintegrated, Iran's proxies ran wild all over it, practically no coverage of the events
Soetero dragged the US through another humiliating retreat in Yemen
Iran attacked ISIS at Tikrit
the Iranian propaganda stream had victory in the grasp of the Iranians and their proxies
the propaganda was wrong of course
Soetero helped out with some airstrikes, presumably part of his ass-kissing to try to get a fake nuclear deal with the mullahs
Yemen's gov't collapsed and fled
the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, and former Iranian-ally-of-convenience Sudan, and Jordan, moved against the Iranian proxies in Yemen, by air, land, and sea
Soetero rushed and continues to rush toward the fake nuclear deal with Iran, no doubt while partisan media shills examine the final text long before anyone is supposed to know what it is, and prepare their talking point memorizations
While Iran's attention is focused on what will prove to be a long bloody fight in Iraq, the threat of ISIS to al Qaeda and al Nusra is removed, and Assad's regime is again under attack
FINOs ignore all of the above, and complain about John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, (private citizen) Mitt Romney...

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