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.

Observers say world and regional powers are involved in hard bargaining behind the scenes over Iran's nuclear program, with possible trade-offs involving arms sales and competition for influence in the world's biggest oil producing region.

A senior diplomat said a shift in Russia's position would become clear in United Nations discussion of future sanctions against Iran.

"I don't expect any abrupt about face in the Russian position but let's wait and see. If current mediation efforts fail, the natural talk will be of more sanctions. How will the Russians behave? Will they part with China to support sanctions? If that's the case then Saudi purchases will have worked."

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer and a close U.S. ally, is wary of Shi'ite Iran's ambitions and shares Western concerns that Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

Moscow is helping Tehran build its first nuclear power station and Putin visited both Tehran and Riyadh last year.

(Reporting by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)