• by IPS Correspondents (moscow)
• Friday, November 18, 1994
• Inter Press Service

MOSCOW, Nov 18 (IPS) - A great deal of diplomatic importance is being attached by Moscow to the five-day visit of Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin to the Arab Gulf States which starts Saturday, say political analysts here.

Chernomyrdin will visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman on his Gulf tour which will be the first visit by a Russian premier to the region since the fall of the former Soviet Union.

Youri Nikolaev writing in the 'Rossiiskiye Vesti' newspaper this week points that besides being interested in broadening economic cooperation with the countries of the region Moscow is striving to specify more clearly its interests in the Middle East.

In particular, as sources from the foreign affairs ministry indicate, the Russian premier will have a chance to inform the leaders of the Gulf states how successful Russian diplomatic contacts with the Iraqi leadership have been.

Chernomyrdin will attempt to explain how Moscow intends to develop further its contact with Iraq and how it intends to promote stability and security in the Gulf region.

"The results achieved during Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev's talks with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein are important as an element of Russian regional policy. The Chernomyrdin visit to the Gulf countries will probably make the Russian approach the the region even more balanced," notes the Moscow weekly publication 'Moscow News' in an editorial.

Earlier in November Kozyrev managed to convince Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to recognise Kuwait's sovereignity. Hussein accepted it as one of the conditions for lifting international sanctions against Iraq.

The Russian government has perceived the Kuwait recognition as a great step forward for Russian diplomacy in the Gulf region.

"However, it is rather difficult to imagine a situation where it would be possible to develop meaningful cooperation with the Gulf countries and at the same time developing economic ties with Iraq which would involve supplying arms to Saddam Hussein," writes Russian journalist Elmar Guseinov in the newspaper 'Izvestia'.

In fact Kozyrev has said that Moscow does not rule out the possibility of supplying military supplies to Iraq after sanctions against the country are lifted.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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