Rocket attack on the capital of Saudi Arabia. Is a Russian strike against Saudi Arabia possible? Americans will not help their satellites

Today it is not customary to put forward ultimatums - wars begin without any ceremony. "I'm coming for you!" - Grand Duke Svyatoslav Igorevich once threatened the Khazars. "Imma adgaggandin!" ("I'm coming!") - the leader of the Huns, Atilla, warned the Romans.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, unlike the ancients, expresses himself much more verbose and streamlined: “The attack on the Sinai Peninsula was an attack on Russian citizens, which is tantamount to an attack on the state. The right to self-defense will be exercised by all available means, both political and military.” What is this, an ultimatum? War? But who the hell did we announce it to?

Our further actions, as President Vladimir Putin said, will be based on Article 51 of the UN Charter. This article, if anyone is not in the know, refers to the right of any state to individual or collective self-defense in the event of an attack on it. So it's about war. It is about the war, with blood and corpses, and not about something conventionally vegetarian like a "special operation of a limited contingent." Just to understand more with whom we are at war. Neither the President nor the Minister of Foreign Affairs announced specifically: this is our enemy! We'll have to use fantasy with logic.

We will hit those who financed the explosion of the airbus a321

Russia is preparing to strike at Saudi Arabia and possibly Qatar, said Andrey Illarionov, a former adviser to the Russian president. “Occupation by the advanced group of the Russian Armed Forces of the Syrian underground, an extremely timely and effective series of terrorist attacks in Egypt and France, the triumphant holding of the G20 summit in Antalya, the de facto paralysis of NATO, the acquisition of an important ally in the face of France, the calming of the West by the beginning of an exchange with the US military data on ongoing operations against ISIS banned in Russia and a proposal to restructure the Ukrainian debt, combat deployment and practical testing of the actions of the fleet and long-range aviation in the Middle East theater of operations - all this prepared and made it possible to carry out a strategic operation to strike at military, infrastructure, energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” explains Illarionov. The task set by Putin to the security forces on November 2 (“everything must be done to create an objective picture of what happened, so that we know what happened and react accordingly”) was already completed by November 16. And the president sets a new task: “Find and punish the criminals. We must do this without a statute of limitations, know them all by name. We will look for them wherever they hide. We will find them anywhere in the world and punish them.”

It was here for the first time that Article 51 of the UN Charter was mentioned. Strange, I must admit, mention. If we are talking about continuing strikes on the positions of extremists in Syria, then Article 51 is not needed for this. We are bombing Syria in accordance with the request of the legitimate President of this country. But if new strikes are to be delivered not against Syria, but against some other country or several countries, Article 51 is indispensable. So Putin mentioned it for a reason? Do you remember what our president said at the recent G20 summit in Antalya? “It is necessary to stop the ways of financing terrorist activities. Funding, as we have established, comes from 40 countries, including from the G20 countries. One of these countries is definitely Saudi Arabia, the other is Qatar.

On this topic

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed the US-Saudi coalition for starting the conflict in the region. He also said that Washington accuses Tehran of attacking Saudi territory in order to increase international pressure on the country.

Americans will not help their satellites

Have you ever wondered why the FSB suddenly set an unprecedentedly high reward for identifying those who ordered the terrorist attack in the sky over Sinai - as much as 50 million dollars? After all, terrorists are handed over by their accomplices and for much smaller amounts. The calculation, probably, is that there are persons and organizations in the world that can provide convincing arguments for the involvement of Saudi Arabia and, possibly, Qatar, in the explosion of the Russian Airbus, Andrey Illarionov believes. And the responsibility for the terrorist attack over Egypt will have to be held not by the conditional ISIS terrorists or Al-Qaeda* banned in the Russian Federation, but by completely certain countries and their political leadership.

The possible escalation of the Syrian conflict and its transformation into a full-fledged war, no longer with anonymous terrorists, but with quite certain countries, is also evidenced by the recent requests for military assistance to the leadership of our country by the officials of Iraq and Lebanon. Moreover, both the Iraqi and Lebanese leaders mean military assistance rather against Qatar, and not against Saudi Arabia. And given that our Airbus in Egypt was blown up most likely by order from Qatar (see the last issue of Our Version), the future enemy is clearly seen. Orientalist Yevgeny Satanovsky is generally convinced that the trail leads straight to Qatar, to the top leadership of this country, who imagines that he has some kind of scores with Russia.

But it is known that Saudi Arabia, and especially Qatar, are America's satellites in the Middle East. Will Russia risk fighting against them without fear of a reaction from Washington? There is obviously a subtlety here: pay attention to how the United States reacted to the tragic events in Paris. The leadership of this country assessed the tragedy as an act of war, and demanded to “activate” Article 5 of the UN Charter - as it was after the terrorist attacks overseas on September 11, 2001. But quite unexpectedly for Paris, NATO allies refused to take "actions of a preventive or coercive nature" against possible organizers of the attack. And France - it would seem, a full partner and ally - was, in fact, abandoned. Perhaps Moscow has convincing evidence that their partners will also “throw” Saudi Arabia and Qatar at a critical moment?

Russia is trying to provoke a war

And then the further scenario will be as follows: Russia will declare Qatar and Saudi Arabia as sponsors of international terrorism (Putin has already hinted at this), and in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, our military will legally be able to carry out retaliation operations aimed at the military, infrastructure and energy facilities of these countries. Well, Washington will be able to react in the usual manner: to announce that Moscow is once again taking on too much. However, it cannot be ruled out that the Americans will behave more harshly. The other day, several well-informed public figures (in particular, Viktor Alksnis and Anatoly Nesmiyan) announced that, according to them, during the G20 meeting in Antalya, Barack Obama allegedly delivered an ultimatum to Vladimir Putin: Russia must withdraw from the Donbass and return Ukraine Crimea. “The ultimatum was presented in a very harsh form,” Viktor Alksnis stressed. Does this mean that the United States is also not averse to making war and is looking for a pretext to unleash a military campaign against our country?

Such questions might not have arisen if the political leadership of our country had expressed itself less vaguely and ambiguously. Just the other day, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Vladimir Putin met with the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and they talked quite peacefully. Over the past year, ties between Moscow and Riyadh have grown significantly stronger - unexpectedly for Washington. And the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was generally met on the Arabian Peninsula with special honors given only to the elite. So, perhaps, statements about a possible war with the sponsors of the ISIS banned in the Russian Federation (among which, by the way, not only Qatar, but also Turks, Pakistanis, and even Americans were noted) are just a clumsy attempt to quarrel us with the Saudis, undertaken by consistent critics of the current Russian leadership? Well, the smoke from fried facts is a good veil, behind which real problems like inflation or the depreciation of the ruble are not visible. Don't find?

Evgeny Satanovsky, orientalist:

- The vast majority of wars are based on the economic interests of the parties. Doha and Riyadh have strong reasons to sort things out with Moscow. Russia and Qatar have strong gas competition in the European market, and in the case of Saudi Arabia, the reason for the differences is oil. Three years ago, I predicted that interesting and unpredictable events related to Qatar await us. There is no doubt who ordered and paid for the terrorist attack in the skies over Sinai - it was Qatar. And at the level of the country's leadership. If the president, speaking of retribution, meant Qatar, I would not be surprised. I only propose to think about what such retribution can mean for Russia. Let's take a look at what we have on our borders: in Uzbekistan - the Islamic movement IMU, banned in the Russian Federation, radical Islamists in Tajikistan, Kyrgyz criminals, weighed down by the ideas of jihad ... The borders between them and us are actually open. And in Russia there is one and only region in which there are definitely no cells of Islamic radicals. This is Chukotka.

The cessation of flights to Egypt and the evacuation of Russian tourists are actions that few expected.

The turning point came after a conversation between the Russian president and the British prime minister and struck everyone with its scale and speed - to stop flights, take people out, deliver luggage on separate sides, and support loss-making travel agencies from the budget.

It will take at least a month to export, since there are from 45 to 70 thousand Russians in Egypt and they must complete their rest.

The expenses are huge, but since they were spent, it means that the situation demanded it and it was impossible to wait any longer.

The network immediately began to speculate what it meant.

Some believe that after the last Russian tourist leaves Egypt, military operation to destroy terrorist bases in the Sinai Peninsula, about which Moscow could agree with Cairo in advance.

By the way, the Egyptian authorities have been fighting local ISIS for a long time and without much success, so they will have to fit the help of Russian aviation.

But in order for the militants not to be able to recoup the citizens of Russia, they must not remain in Egypt.

Other netizens, on the contrary, believe that IS has nothing to do with it and see future events in a different light.

They draw attention to the fact that carrying out such attacks is not in the style of ISIS. It would be possible to admit their fate if the plane was shot down by a missile.

But it fell to pieces at an altitude of 9000 meters, and any portable MANPADS that, theoretically, they may have, are capable of working on targets at an altitude of 3-4 thousand meters, no more. Hence, there was a bomb quietly planted on the plane.

So far, ISIS have not dealt with such matters..

They recklessly cut the heads of their victims, burn them alive in iron cages or crush them with tanks, moreover, they film all this on camera and post it on the Internet. In a word, they work for the public, trying to cause maximum horror in opponents.

But the development of covert operations is not carried away. Although they hurried to cling to the plane crash.

However, they did it somehow uncertainly and unconvincingly, which caused great doubts among everyone who saw the dedicated videos.

Throwing a bomb resembles, rather, the handwriting of the special services.

But whose? And here we come to the most interesting part of the question.

"Most of all, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are now dissatisfied with the Russian military operation in Syria., - is listed in the article on the AIS website. - It is almost unbelievable that the Turks organized the attack. Despite the friction between Moscow and Ankara on foreign policy issues, our countries are very closely linked economically. In addition, the organizer of the sabotage understands that there is always a risk that everything will be revealed. And the murder of 240 citizens in a generally friendly country is a 100% "casus belli" (casus belli - a reason to start a war). I don't think Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to be at war with the Russian Federation."- says the author of the publication. And develops the idea further.

Another thing is Saudi Arabia.

This is the most terry absolutist monarchy in the world, where everything is decided by the kings from the Saudi dynasty.

current king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud very old (80 years old) and, as they say, not quite adequate. And his relatives are among themselves a merciless undercover struggle for the throne. It is difficult to understand who makes decisions there.

On the other hand, the Saudis are the long-standing and main source of the continuous war of all against all in the Middle East, and this further and more irritates serious players in world politics, including the United States, which, it seems, are allies of Riyadh, but have recently begun he is shunned because of the savage morals within the regime (death penalty for adultery and homosexuality).

In addition, some experts believe that it was the Saudis who dropped oil prices in order to destroy shale oil production in the United States.

And they succeeded - in America there are only 37% of wells operating on shale, in comparison with the level of the beginning of 2014. And their developers suffered losses of a trillion dollars.

It is highly likely that Washington will only be happy if Saudi Arabia ceases to exist in its current form and does not interfere with anyone who intends to do so.

Well, as a maximum, express verbal protest and indignation.

If we assume that the destruction of the aircraft is the work of the Saudi intelligence services (themselves or through Al-Qaeda), then Russia will have to answer.

And it's not that hard to do it.

The Caspian Flotilla and the Black Sea Fleet can strike Saudi Arabia with Kalibr cruise missiles, which recently struck the world community.

Then Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22 aircraft will be added with Kh-55 and Kh-555 missiles with a range of 2000-2500 km.

That is, aircraft and ships can cover targets in Saudi Arabia with long-range missiles, while being completely safe far beyond the range of Saudi aviation and air defense.

There are also rumors that Russian ground-based Iskander missile systems are only listed as "near range" systems of 500 km, but in fact can fly 2,000 km. But you can do without them.

The fleet and long-range aviation will cope on their own, destroying the key objects of the military infrastructure of Saudi Arabia: radars, command posts and air defense launch systems; airfields, headquarters, communication centers, weapons depots and seaports.

And if oil production facilities are touched, then it will only play into the hands - prices will skyrocket.

The foreign press also admits a similar development of events, although it does not work out everything in detail.

The West expects an "epic response" from Moscow if the version of a terrorist attack on board a Russian airliner is confirmed, writes The Washington Times.

Vladimir Putin has earned a reputation among the Russian population as a man of action who does not offend Russians.

The Russian public will not be silent and will not allow this crime of the "Islamic State" banned in Russia to go unpunished.

The observer predicts further large-scale military actions by Russia.

It will be costly, but Moscow has no choice but to act, and Russians have long been accustomed to enduring hardship for the good of the state, the author of the publication concludes.

Alexander Romanov

Saudi Arabia's missile defenses intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired into the kingdom by the Houthis, a Shiite militant group operating in Yemen. Those, in turn, promised to subject Saudi Arabia to new missile strikes if Riyadh does not stop the bombing of Yemen, reports .

Three rockets fired by the Houthis targeted the Saudi capital Riyadh. The Saudi missile defense system intercepted them shortly before midnight on March 25, the military kingdoms said.

Rocket debris fell on a house in Riyadh, killing one Egyptian citizen. Two more Egyptians were wounded.

The remaining rockets were fired at the southern cities of Najran, Jizan and Khamis Mushait in southwestern Saudi Arabia. They were also intercepted by Sadovo's missile defense systems. There are no reports of casualties or casualties as a result of these strikes.

The leader of the Houthi political council, Saleh al-Samad, during his speech in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, welcomed the missile strikes, calling them "the successful improvement of military capabilities" of the group.

“If they (the Saudis. - Gazeta.ru) want peace, as we have already told them, then let them stop their air strikes and we will stop our missiles. If you continue to launch air strikes, then we have the right to defend ourselves with all the means available to us, ”he said.

The US has strongly condemned the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, calling on the parties to continue political dialogue to end the war in Yemen, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. "The United States strongly condemns the dangerous missile attacks targeted by the Houthis on several cities in Saudi Arabia on Sunday night," she was quoted as saying.

Washington expressed condolences to the victims of the attack, and also stressed that it supports "the rights of Saudi partners to protect their borders against such threats."

“We continue to call on all parties [to the conflict], including the Houthis, to return to political negotiations and move towards an end to the war in Yemen,” the US State Department said in a statement.

The missile strikes were also condemned by Russia. “Moscow strongly condemns this kind of indiscriminate missile strikes, the targets of which, among other things, are settlements and their civilians,” they stressed, calling on the parties to end hostilities as soon as possible and start a political dialogue.

The United Arab Emirates, a key ally of Saudi Arabia in the military operation in Yemen, blamed Iran for the missile attack. The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs tweeted that the missiles fired from Yemen are of Iranian origin and noted that "one cannot live in peace with terrorist insurgents who threaten the stability of our region and mediate Iran."

This missile attack could lead to a sharp escalation of the conflict in Yemen, one of the consequences of which was, according to the UN, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, writes Reuters.

Advisor to the director (RISI) Elena Suponina, in a conversation with Gazeta.Ru, suggested that after the missile strikes, both an escalation of the situation in Yemen itself and a deterioration in relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran could follow.

“Saudi Arabia has been conducting a military campaign in Yemen for the third year, and much more progress could have been achieved during this time. Therefore, the latest reports of missile interceptions from Yemen are intended, firstly, to demonstrate that things are not so bad, and Riyadh is coping with the situation. And secondly, these messages are immediately accompanied by accusations against Iran, which, according to the Saudis, is supplying the Yemeni rebels with these missiles. It should be noted that in Iran this is completely denied. Given the ease with which Sadovskaya Arabia habitually blames Iran, it can be assumed that escalation is not far off both in Yemen itself and in relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, ”she suggested.

At the same time, a senior lecturer in the department of general political science, an orientalist, is convinced that the incident with the interception of missiles will not lead to an escalation of the situation in Yemen. In his opinion, Saudi resources in the conflict are already used to the maximum, and missile strikes are unlikely to lead to any serious changes in the situation.

“This [strike] has been happening almost weekly for several years now. Missiles fly almost constantly, some intercept, some do not. This is an absolutely ordinary event, if they do not fall into some serious strategic place. A war has been going on there for the third year already, so a fallen fragment of a rocket is not the worst thing that could happen. What an escalation, if there are already in full swing fighting. Saudi Arabia will not start a ground operation, and they are already carrying out air strikes,” he explained to Gazeta.Ru.

Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemeni conflict in 2015 after the Houthis captured the country's capital Sana'a, ousting the government from it. In March 2015, an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on Houthi positions.

At the moment, the conflict in Yemen is reminiscent of the Syrian crisis, which practically destroyed the infrastructure and economy of the country, and as a result of it, the state itself split into several zones controlled by various militant groups, the most powerful of which are the Houthis. According to the UN, about 10,000 people have already become victims of the war in Yemen.

The interception of missiles launched by the Houthis by Saudi air defense, video from the Tariq A channel

Sunday evening in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the residents and the military of the country turned out to be not a weekend at all. This is not the first time Shiite Houthi rebels have fired on the kingdom. But seven missiles in four cities at once is a serious challenge.

According to the press secretary of the Saudi coalition, Colonel Turki Al-Maliki, the targets of the shells were four cities: Jizan (two hits), Nairan (one hit) and Khamis Mushait (one hit) near the Yemeni border, as well as the capital of the KSA - Er - Riyadh (three strikes). All missiles were destroyed by Saudi air defenses.

In addition to the scale of the attack, yesterday's incident was also distinguished by the fact that it led to the death of a civilian for the first time. Fragments of the downed rocket fell on residential areas, causing destruction of "civilian objects" and the death of one native of Egypt, the statement said.

Falling fragments of rockets, video from the Dhafer Alduhayim channel

The unprecedented attack by the Houthis is likely to result in retaliatory strikes by Saudi Arabia. The kingdom typically responds with heavy airstrikes on the Yemeni capital Sana'a. Previous serious attempts by the Houthis were recorded on December 19, when they tried to shell the Yamama Palace Hotel, and on November 4, the Riyadh International Airport.

The civil war in Yemen began in 2014 after social protests in Houthi areas. The latter were outraged by the reduction in subsidies for petroleum products, which resulted in a twofold increase in gasoline prices. The rebels, who did not achieve the resignation of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, moved to the capital Sanaa and captured it in January 2015. Hadi fled south to Aden, but a month later the Houthis began to storm this port city as well.

In March, Saudi Arabia intervened. In alliance with Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt and other Arab countries, the coalition Air Force began to bombard the positions of the Houthis and knocked them out of Aden. The military operations of the Saudi coalition have led to a humanitarian catastrophe and an outbreak of cholera that has affected almost a million people.

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of supporting the Houthis, to whom, according to Riyadh, Tehran supplies weapons. Needless to say, it's not unreasonable. In December, rebel leader spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam tweeted that they had fired Burqan 2H ballistic missiles at Riyadh. Burqan missiles are a modified version of the Iranian Scud missile. The head of the Ansar Allah Houthis, Abdel Malek al-Houthi, threatened in November to inflict painful blows on the KSA if it continued to blockade Yemen. Tehran denies transferring weapons to its allies in Yemen.

The president of the Middle East Institute, Yevgeny Satanovsky, considers the Houthis’ missile strikes to be natural in a situation where the Saudi coalition is waging a war in Yemen, which has led to the death of tens of thousands of civilians.

Saudi Arabia is bombing Yemen. Destroys the civilian population, infrastructure. The Houthis have hit a number of cities, including Riyadh and the port of Riyadh, and they are demonstrating that they can reach the Saudis even far from the border."

Satanovsky said in an interview with Tsargrad.

The conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia is part of a regional confrontation between the Sunni monarchies of the Persian Gulf, led by Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Tehran has a large influence in the region through Shia minorities in Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen, which worries the Saudis. Fuel is added to the fire by Washington's unilateral support for anti-Iranian forces. The latest reshuffling in the State Department and the US National Security Council has strengthened the positions of those in the Donald Trump administration who, like the head of the White House, intend to break the nuclear deal with Iran. On March 23, the State Department approved a deal to supply the Saudis with weapons worth $1 billion. Human rights activists fear that the kingdom will use American weapons against the Houthis.