BICOM

US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Riyadh yesterday to assure his Saudi hosts and their Gulf neighbours that nuclear talks with Iran would not herald wider leniency towards Tehran.

Kerry travelled to Saudi Arabia fresh from three days of talks with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif during which the two sides attempted to move towards an outline of a ten-year agreement over Iran’s nuclear development. Although any such deal remains in the balance, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states share Israel’s concern that an agreement would not be sufficiently robust to prevent Iran from Iranian building nuclear weapons and advancing its influence in the region. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week warned US Congress that the emerging agreement would not be effective in denying Iranian nuclear ambitions.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud said that Iran is heavily supporting Iraq’s operation against ISIS in Tikrit and that such influence “is a prime example of what we are talking about” regarding Iran’s regional ambitions. Sunni Saudi Arabia regards Shia Iran as a major and ambitious regional rival. However, Kerry said, “Even as we engage in these discussions with Iran around its nuclear program, we will not take our eye off of Iran’s other destabilizing actions in places like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula, Yemen particularly.” Iran provides substantial support for terror groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and is Syrian President Assad’s closes ally.

Kerry also met with the foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates at a Riyadh air base. Kerry assured them that “We are not seeking a grand bargain” whereby a nuclear deal with Iran would be a quid pro quo to ignore the other dangers posed by Tehran. He indicated that Washington is not looking for any kind of wider rapprochement with Iran and that “We will not take our eye off of Iran’s other destabilizing actions” in the region.