Paul Winter writes:
Roggeveen misinterprets the Saudi arms purchase when he asserts that Saudi fighter purchases provide an excuse for the Russians to sell S-300 systems to Iran. The Saudis are not as overtly aggressive as Iran, which sponsors covert terror. They are not developing nuclear weapons like Iran and threatening the existence of Israel and the Jews.
The fighters Saudi Arabia is buying enable it to project conventional force. The Iranians cannot match Saudi Arabia or Israel in air forces, but as they have demonstrated in Lebanon and by their rocket development, they are creating a first strike capability and a means of devastating non-conventional retaliation if attacked.
The Saudis would not need to buy fighters if Iran was not preparing to become the regional hegemon and in doing so to subjugate the dominant stream of Islam. Russia has no excuse to arm Iran, but it has plenty of commercial reasons, as do the Europeans. While Russia has a geopolitical interest in undermining the West, it and China are playing with fire in supporting an Islamofascist regime, which could threaten them in support of their own restive Mohammedan minorities.