Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,
Saudi King Salman has threatened to take military action against neighboring Qatar if the nation follows through with a plan to install an anti-aircraft defense system.
Salman said he would take military action to “eliminate this defense system.”
Saudi Arabia and many of its allies severed ties with Qatar last year, based around a false media report claiming the Qatari Emir wasn’t sufficiently hostile toward Iran. The Saudis have since suggested they’d channel out the entire Qatari border, turning it into an island, and dumping nuclear waste in the area.
Around this ever growing Saudi hostility toward Qatar, the nation made a deal to buy S-400 air defense systems from Russia. Russia says that plans to deliver the missiles have not changed, despite the Saudi threats.
That Qatar turned to Russia for air defenses is interesting, as historically the nation has heavily bought arms from the US.
Qatar also hosts a massive US base, which one would think would preclude a Saudi attack on them.
The S-400 has been a popular export for Russia, with another US ally, Turkey, also having recently agreed to buy it.
The US has expressed annoyance about these nations buying Russian arms, but fear of losing future sales has precluded any major moves to punish them.
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