Riyadh seen trying to wean Russia away from Iran

By Andrew Hammond

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has been working on weaning Russia away from Iran over the past year but is unlikely to have extracted a promise from Moscow that it will change its policy, diplomats said on Wednesday.

A Russian newspaper said this week that U.S.-allied Riyadh offered to award Russia lucrative arms contracts if the Kremlin curtailed cooperation with Iran.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, son of Crown Prince Sultan and former ambassador to Washington, met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.

Saudi television carried news of a landmark deal on military cooperation, following months of what diplomats in Riyadh say was quiet diplomacy as Prince Bandar frequently visited the Russian capital away from the glare of publicity.

But a Russian government spokesman denied the deal was linked to Iran and diplomats say it was too early to say if Riyadh had won any concessions.

Many Western countries have tried to win defence and other contracts from Riyadh over the past two years but few have actually come through. British and U.S. firms have secured the bulk of deals worth billions of dollars.

"The speculation (in the media) is that this is a fundamental shift in (Russian) strategy but how realistic that is is hard to say," one diplomat in Riyadh told Reuters.

He said the kingdom may have showed "a degree of discomfort" at Russia's close ties with Iran but was unlikely to have asked directly for a change of policy.