Arab Experts: Putin Is Restoring Russia's Mideast Role
Arab experts say that Russian President Vladimir Putin's Middle East trip that starts Sunday has the primary aim of "sending a message" to the United States that Moscow has a key role to play in this vital region and that it is high time for Washington to quit its policies of domination.

"By carrying out this exceptional trip, I believe Putin is at pains to dispatch a message to the United States that the Middle East is not a backyard for Washington, but a vital area for the whole world," Faisal al-Rofou, head of the political science department at the University of Jordan, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Russian president was due to arrive in oil-rich Saudi Arabia Sunday at the start of a rare Middle East trip that also takes him to the Gulf state of Qatar and Jordan.

In his toughest-worded comments in seven years in power, Putin lashed out at the United States Saturday during the Munich Security Conference, saying a US-led "unipolar world" was unacceptable and had led to more wars and conflicts across the globe.

"Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper-use of military force in international relations," Putin said, alluding to the US.

Al-Rofou said that the Russian leader's comments indicated Moscow was "fed up with the domination polices of US President George W Bush."

"Putin is heir to the legacy of a great state - the Soviet Union - and although Moscow's role has receded over the past few years, the Russian leader wants to say that it is high time for Moscow to play that great part again in the affairs of the Middle East and the world at large," he added.

"Therefore, his Middle East trip seeks to drive the idea home that we are present in this part of the world and the United States should recognize others' interests in the region," he added.

The Jordanian academic expected Putin's visit would "add significance" to the agreement concluded in Mecca on Thursday with Saudi brokerage between the key Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas.

"I believe the accord will figure largely in Putin's talks with Saudi leaders and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas," he said. Abbas is scheduled to meet with Putin in Amman on Tuesday.

Palestinian diplomats expected the Mecca declaration to be high on the agenda during the meeting.

"We count on the Russian support for ensuring a lift of the Western embargo that was imposed on the Palestinian Authority in March" in the wake of the landslide victory scored by the hardline Hamas group, al-Rofou said.

During the last Mideast Quartet meeting in Washington at the outset of this month, the Russian delegate urged a speedy end of the boycott of the Hamas-led government which he said came to office through the ballots.

Besides Russia, the quartet also includes the US, the European Union and the United Nations.

Qadri Saeed, head of the military department at the Cairo-based al-Ahram Strategic Studies, believed Moscow "stood a good chance of influencing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through its balanced ties with both Fatah and Hamas on one side and between the Palestinians and Israel on the other".

"In face of the receding US influence in the region due to setbacks in Iraq and other areas, the Russians now feel they can occupy the ensuing vacuum in the region," he told dpa.

Russia can count for achieving this end on its position as a key supplier to Iran of nuclear know-how and other strategic weapons, Saeed said.

"I believe Moscow can contribute to a solution for Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme by giving the impression to Tehran that Russia supports its quest to obtain nuclear technology and at the same time joining any logical world drive to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions," he added.