Qatar in Talks with Russia Over S-400 Missile Defense System Purchase

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin on purchasing S-400 missile defense system.

“There is no agreement. It’s true that we discussed it, we talked about it,” the Emir was quoted as saying by Ahlul Bayt news agency at a press conference in Paris  last Friday after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I don’t want to go into details,” he said.

The monarch last met Putin in Moscow in March and is set to hold talks with him again during the latter stages of the World Cup in Russia.

Saudi Arabia - which is engaged in a intense diplomatic rift with Qatar since last year - has also signed a contract with Moscow to buy the surface-to-air missile system. The two sides signed the contract during a visit to Moscow by Saudi King Salman in March 2017.

Last month, the French daily Le Monde cited King Salman as conveying his “profound concern” in a letter to President Macron over the prospect of Qatar’s buying S-400 missile system. He had even warned that Riyadh “would be ready to take all necessary measures - including military action - to eliminate this defense system" if Qatar purchased it.