S Arabia threatens military action if Qatar installs air defence system

PARIS: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has threatened to take military action if Qatar installs a Russian air defence system, France’s Le Monde newspaper reported.

Qatar and Russia signed an agreement on military and technical cooperation last year. Qatar’s ambassador was quoted as saying in January that it was in talks to buy the Russian S-400 missile air defence systems.

Le Monde said that Saudi King Salman had written a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, expressing his profound concern over the possibility that Qatar could deploy the missiles.

“The kingdom would be ready to take all necessary measures to eliminate this defence system, including military action,” Le Monde quoted the letter to Macron as saying.