RIYADH (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th October, 2019) Saudi Arabia is open to discussing new forms of international cooperation aimed at ensuring security in the Persian Gulf, particularly in terms of safety of maritime passage and prevention of arms smuggling, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Jubeir said on Sunday.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested at the Valdai discussion club that a brand new organization for security and cooperation be created in the Persian Gulf region that would have Russia, China, the European Union and the United States among its members.
"We are in discussions and we are open to conversation with all our friends when it comes to the security in the Gulf. We want to have the Gulf as secure as possible, we want there to be a freedom of navigation, we want to make sure that the smuggling of weapons and missiles and so forth is accounted for and does not happen," Jubeir told reporters, when asked whether Saudi Arabia wanted to join Russia's concept of security in the Persian Gulf.
Tensions have escalated in the Persian Gulf over the past several months, to a large extent around the standoff between Iran and the United States. A series of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as most recently an attack on Iran's oil tanker some 60 miles off the Saudi coast, has worsened the situation.
In August, the United States called upon Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, South Korea and the United Kingdom, among others, to join a coalition that would ensure safe maritime passage through the strategic pathways of the Gulf by means of aerial surveillance and actual patrol ships. While several countries responded to the plea and sent their vessels to the Gulf, others insisted on that they were capable of protecting their own ships without help of a coalition of third countries.�
