US seeks Mideast Gulf acceptance of Iran diplomacy

The US is encouraging its Mideast Gulf Arab partners to resume normal economic and political ties with Iran if Washington and Tehran agree to revive a nuclear deal that would lift US sanctions.

The US and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in a joint statement following a meeting in Riyadh today said that deeper economic cooperation after the lifting of US nuclear-related sanctions against Iran would be "in the mutual interest of the region." The GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Crucially for the US administration, all the GCC members are also publicly backing Washington's view that reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal is important for addressing long-standing concerns by Iran's neighbors. Mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA "would help pave the way for inclusive diplomatic efforts to address all issues that are necessary to ensure sustainable safety, security, and prosperity in the region," the statement said.

Indirect US-Iranian talks on negotiating an end to US oil sanctions and Tehran's return to nuclear compliance will resume in Vienna on 29 November.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE strongly opposed the JCPOA nuclear deal after it was signed in 2015, and Riyadh last year warned President Joe Biden's incoming administration against resurrecting the agreement that former president Donald Trump unilaterally left in 2018.

But Riyadh has been holding informal diplomatic exchanges with Tehran in recent months, and together with other GCC members said today that those informal exchanges would develop over time to "promote peaceful ties in the region." Riyadh and Tehran severed diplomatic relations in January 2016, days before the JCPOA went into effect.

GCC has rarely presented a unified front on Iran in the past decade. Oman facilitated US-Iranian diplomacy that led to the JCPOA. Qatar has maintained relations with Iran as well — a factor that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi cited in 2017 when they broke relations with Doha. The inter-GCC rift was finally closed in January.

The Biden administration sees nascent diplomacy between Iran and its regional rivals as validation of its decision to restart talks on reviving the nuclear deal.

But that regional diplomacy may also reflect concerns in the region about the US commitment to come to the defense of its Middle East allies in the face of proxy attacks attributed to Iran. The September 2019 attack against major Saudi Aramco facilities drew a tepid response from the Trump administration. And Trump openly questioned the need for a continued US military umbrella for the Mideast Gulf. Biden has launched a "strategic review" of relations with Saudi Arabia, leaning on Riyadh to end its involvement in the Yemen civil war.

"We will not hesitate to defend ourselves and our partners, and we are committed to having the capability for that," US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said today. The US-GCC statement condemned "a range of aggressive and dangerous Iranian policies" such as the use of drones and missiles that Washington and its allies say are used by Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi movements against oil and other civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.

By Haik Gugarats