Reports Saturday said that Saudi Arabia will send warships to cooperate with a force of warships from the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO - to fight the pirate scourge.

The announcement came after the pirates enraged Riyadh by seizing the Saudi super-tanker Siruis Star while it was carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil worth at least $100 million.

The pirates are holding the ship and its crew at Harardhare in Somalia's anything-goes Puntland region and are demanding a $25 million ransom for it. It is the most expensive hijacking in recorded history.

Emboldened by their coup with the Sirius Star, the pirates this week also seized the Yemeni cargo ship MV Amani. So far this year, more than 90 ships have been raided or seized by the pirates.

It was finally too much for the Saudis, who had previously sought to avoid the problem, beset as they were with more immediate security challenges. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal announced in Oslo Saturday that his government would pool its naval forces with NATO's "to help in pursuing piracy in the region, and this is the only way this can be dealt with."

Saud memorably added, "Negotiations and ransoms only encourage piracy and are not a solution."

Saudi Arabia's willingness to cooperate so openly and closely with NATO on the issue is highly significant in several ways.

First, it underlines the desert kingdom's willingness to risk the wrath of al-Qaida and Iran by openly cooperating with Western nations. In this respect, it reflects the weakening clout of the mullahs in Tehran since global oil prices plunged from a historic peak of nearly $147 per barrel to around $60 per barrel in the past few months.

Second, the Saudis would probably not have been willing to risk making the offer of cooperation with NATO if Sen. John McCain had won the U.S. presidential election or if incumbent President George W. Bush had not finally been relegated to the status of lame duck in Washington.

The Saudi offer to cooperate with the United States against the pirates should, therefore, also be seen as a signal to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama that during his term of office Riyadh hopes for a revival of the historic strategic relationship that has been so fruitful for both nations over the past three quarters of a century.

Finally, the cautious, but clear and determined NATO policy of deploying serious naval forces in the region to protect international shipping is a model example of how Western military power can win friends and influence people in the Middle East without resorting to wild military adventures and failed gambles like the invasion of Iraq.

One trusts that Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who is expected to be his secretary of state, will draw the appropriate conclusions.