MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian position on the Iraqi problem takes into account interests of Iraq's neighbors, in particular, oil giants such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, director of the center on Middle Eastern conflicts analysis under the Russian Institute of the U.S. and Canada Alexander Shumilin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
"Contacts with Riyadh, in particular, in the oil and gas spheres, that have been stepped up recently, are of special importance for Moscow," Shumilin said.
According him, a series of recent events evidence the serious rapprochement of Russia and Saudi Arabia. In particular, Russia's Stroitransgas company and the Saudi Oje company signed an agreement on Wednesday on the establishment of a joint consortium for the joint implementation of oil and gas projects in Saudi Arabia, Middle Eastern and African countries. The consortium is the first enterprise of this kind in the history of Russia and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi minister of oil arrived in Moscow on Thursday.
"All those facts evidence a dramatic escalation of Russian- Saudi cooperation in the oil and gas sphere. It is very important in the context of expected events in the Middle East," Shumilin noted.
According to him, Saudi Arabia is longing to avoid combat operations in the Gulf.
Experts say that in case of war Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain will lose USD67bn while the other countries of the Arab East will lose USD23bn, which is 15% of the Arab countries' GDP, Shumilin added.