Matthew Lee| Associated
Press RIYADH: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought Thursday to ease Gulf Arab
concerns about an emerging nuclear deal with Iran and explore ways to calm instability in Yemen and
other troubled nations in the Middle East.
A day after wrapping up the
latest round of Iran nuclear negotiations in Switzerland, Kerry was in Saudi Arabia for talks with
senior officials from the Sunni-ruled Gulf states and the new Saudi monarch, King
Salman.
Kerry was meeting in the Saudi capital of Riyadh with the foreign
ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates, all of which are unnerved by Shiite Iran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons and
its increasing assertiveness throughout the region.
U.S. officials said
Kerry will reassure them that a deal with Tehran will not allow Iran to get the bomb and won't mean
American complacency on broader security matters. Iran is actively supporting forces fighting in
Syria and Iraq and is linked to Shiite rebels who recently toppled the U.S. and Arab-backed
government in Yemen.
Kerry will tell them that no matter what happens with
the Iranian nuclear talks, the U.S. will continue to confront "Iranian expansion" and
"aggressiveness" in the region and work closely with the Gulf states on security and defense
capabilities, according to American officials.
On Yemen, the officials said
Kerry will reiterate that the U.S. supports U.N. efforts to promote a dialogue leading to a
political transition in Yemen, which is embroiled in a political crisis that threatens to split the
country. The U.N.-mediated talks are aimed at breaking the political stalemate between the rebels
known as the Houthis and Yemeni President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi.
Hadi
fled the capital of Sanaa after being released from house arrest last month and is now based in the
southern city of Aden, from where he has been meeting foreign diplomats, including the U.S.
ambassador. Hadi has called for the relocation of embassies to Aden, as several GCC members have
done already.
The United States, which closed its embassy in Sanaa last
month and evacuated its diplomatic staff, has no plans to relocate to Aden, although the U.S.
ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Tueller, met with Hadi in Aden on Monday. Until the crisis is resolved
and the embassy reopened, Tueller and some of his staff will be based in an office at the U.S.
Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the officials said.
In addition to the
Iranian nuclear issue and Yemen, Kerry will also discuss the continually deteriorating conditions in
Syria and the fight against Islamic State group militants there and in
Iraq.
U.S. officials said Kerry would stress that the United States does
not see a military solution to the conflict in Syria, but also does not think a political solution
is possible while Syrian President Bashar Assad remains in power.
Zarif says Iran nuclear agreement could be close
WASHINGTON/MONTREUX, Switzerland: Iran’s foreign minister said Wednesday that he believed “we are very close,” to a nuclear arms deal with Western powers, but cautioned there were details that needed to be worked out.
Mohammad Javad Zarif told NBC News that Iran was prepared to work “round the clock” to reach an agreement.
“We believe that we are very close, very close,” although adding: “We could be very far.”
“We are very close if the political decision can be made to get to yes, as President Obama said.”
Earlier, in a veiled dig at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that simply demanding Tehran’s capitulation is no way to get a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.
“There are still significant gaps and important choices that need to be made,” Kerry told reporters after more than 10 hours of talks all told with Zarif.
Tuesday, Netanyahu said in a speech in the U.S. Congress that Washington was negotiating a bad deal with Iran which could spark a “nuclear nightmare,” drawing a rebuke from President Barack Obama and exposing a deepening U.S.-Israeli rift.
Kerry said politics and external factors would not distract from the talks, which aim to constrain Iran with intrusive U.N. access and verification of its nuclear activity and lengthen the “breakout” time needed for it to build any nuclear weapon.
“No one has presented a more viable, lasting alternative for how you actually prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. So folks, simply demanding that Iran capitulate is not a plan. And nor would any of our P5+1 partners support us in that position.”
The other P5+1 countries are Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, who would all have to sign off on any deal.
Netanyahu has called for the powers to insist Iran dismantle its nuclear infrastructure and change what he described as its “aggressive” regional posture – an idea swiftly rejected by the Obama administration as equivalent to seeking “regime change” in Tehran. Israel and Iran have been archenemies since 1979.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, meanwhile, responded that Israel creates the “greatest danger” in the region.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry denounced what it called Netanyahu’s “continuous lie-spreading about the goals and intentions behind Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.”
“If the basis of these negotiations is for increased transparency, we will accept greater transparency,” Rouhani added in a statement. “But if the negotiations are trying to prevent the people of Iran from [enjoying] their inalienable right, in other words advancement in science and technology, it is very natural that Iran will not accept such an understanding or agreement.”
Kerry also sought to address the concerns of Arab nations who fear that a nuclear deal may simply leave Iran with more cash and energy to pursue its regional agenda, including supporting Houthis in Yemen, the Syrian regime and Hezbollah.
“For all the objections that any country has to Iranian activities in the region, and believe me, we have objections ... the first step is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Kerry said.
Zarif earlier told Iran’s state-run Press TV that “we have one very serious problem and that is that there is a great deal of pressure being imposed by warmongers, by scaremongers ... trying to prevent the deal by scaremongering tactic, by lying, by demagoguery.”
The six powers’ foreign ministry political directors will meet Iranian negotiators in Switzerland Thursday ahead of the next round between the two pivotal players, Kerry and Zarif.
Kerry flew to Saudi Arabia later Wednesday and plans to meet the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in Paris Saturday, a senior U.S. State Department official said, and U.S. negotiator Wendy Sherman will brief Israel soon.
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