A fresh fake news story about the Saudi ultimatum to Russia is circulating online.
According to the reports issued by a number of media outlest (example), Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud issued a de-facto ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that Russia has to stop “its indiscriminate bombing” and threatened to destroy “Russian forces in Syria in 3 days.”
Reports provide few fake quotes of the Saudi crown prince:
“I think there is many terrorist groups in Syria that must be defeated. But it’s the Russians who tries to expand terrorism in the Middle East. It’s not difficult to imagine how much the spirits of these terrorists been raised, obviously,Russia is helping terrorists by attacking FSA militants.”
OR
“Saudi Arabia won’t ‘go soft’ on Russia, we will issue an ultimatum to Mr. Putin. If Russia continues its indiscriminate bombing, we should make clear that we will take steps to hold its forces at greater risk. Russia must keep in mind that our military capabilities will be enough to destruct Russian forces in Syria in 3 days.”
According to the media that spread such reports, the story orignis to the official Saudi Press Agency. However, the Saudi state-run media has not released this report and there are no such quotes of Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud are available online.
The story was originally reported by the AWDNEWS media outlet. AWDNEWS also argued that the source of the report is the Saudi Press Agency. But the provided link just leads to an English version of the Saudi agency and no such report is avaliable online.
Most likely, the circulating story is just a part of the ongoing media and diplomatic standoff surrounding the Qatar crisis.
