News - Middle East - Saudi Arabia: Coinciding with the United States' withdrawal of missile systems, equipment, and soldiers from the Kingdom and regions in the Middle East, Greece sent the Patriot missile system to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

The Greek Chief of Staff, Konstantinos Floros, said on his Twitter account that the aim of sending the missile system to Saudi Arabia is to maintain peace and stability, especially in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean.  

Floros posted pictures of the system's farewell ceremony and limited Greek forces belonging to the 114th Combat Wing.

Greece is providing Saudi Arabia with the Patriot system on loan, in accordance with an agreement signed between the two countries last April.

Saudi Arabia relies on the Patriot air defense systems to protect its facilities. However, the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed the Central Command of the US Army, which oversees the region, to withdraw its equipment from Saudi Arabia this summer.

Earlier, the Associated Press revealed that the US had recently withdrawn some of its advanced defense systems from Saudi Arabia, including Patriot missile batteries.

The agency announced it had seen satellite images taken on August 9, confirming that a group of Patriot batteries and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system belonging to the US Army, deployed at Prince Sultan Air Base, were withdrawn from the site.

This is not the first time the US removes missiles of this type. In May of last year, the US "Bloomberg" agency revealed that the United States removed two batteries of "Patriot" anti-missile batteries from Saudi Arabia and two other batteries in the Middle East. The reason was attributed to "reducing tensions with Iran."

The move also comes while the American interception systems have long been failing Saudi Arabia in the face of retaliatory strikes launched from Yemen, Saudi’s southern neighbor.

An innumerable number of Yemeni rockets and missiles have passed right through the allegedly state-of-the-art-looking American equipment over the past seven years as Yemen has been defending itself against a Saudi-led war.

Riyadh’s acquisition of the Patriot missile system comes while the war has already killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, while constantly stopping short of its avowed objectives, including restoration of power in Yemen to the kingdom’s allies.

Source: Agencies