Washington: US President Barack Obama will meet with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir at the White House on Friday in his first meeting with a key ally following the Iran nuclear deal, a White House official said on Thursday.
The official said Obama and Al Jubeir would discuss the Iran accord among other things.
In the first public comments on the Iran agreement by a senior Saudi official, Al Jubeir did not explicitly endorse or reject the deal at a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday. He stressed the need for inspections to verify Iran is complying and the “snapback” of sanctions if it is found to be cheating.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that the White House meeting was scheduled for Friday.
The president’s meeting will follow one on Thursday between Secretary of State John Kerry and Al Jubeir, as the Obama administration tries to ease the concerns of Iran’s rivals in the Gulf about the agreement that calls for Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of crippling international sanctions.
Gulf allies led by the Saudis have questioned whether Iran can be trusted to honour the accord and how it may use its newfound clout in a region ripped apart by sectarian conflicts. Many of the same concerns are being voiced by Israel — and by members of the US Congress who will have 60 days to review the agreement before deciding whether to vote against it.
Wars between forces backed by Iran and Saudi Arabia have left 250,000 people dead since 2011, most of them in Syria, and cost some economies billions of dollars. Amid the carnage and the security vacuum, extremist groups including Daesh have strengthened and are sponsoring attacks from Tunisia to Iraq.
Gulf travels
US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter plans to meet with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council on July 21 in Saudi Arabia. Kerry will do the same in Doha, Qatar’s capital, on August 3. The administration has signalled that it will beef up security assistance to the Gulf council members and to Israel, which Carter also will visit on his trip to the region next week.
After the meeting with Kerry, Al Jubeir told reporters, “All of us in the region want to see a peaceful resolution to Iran’s nuclear programme.”
“We are committed that if Iran should try to cause mischief in the region, we are committed to confront it resolutely,” said Al Jubeir.
Kerry also met on Thursday with more than 200 diplomats from around the world who attended a State Department briefing on the Iran accord.
Senate hearing
As Congress opens its review of the deal, Obama is sending three Cabinet members involved in the issue to make the case on Capitol Hill next week.
Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob J Lew will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 23 on the agreement, which has drawn objections from lawmakers from both parties. House Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that the deal faces stiff opposition.
“It’s pretty clear to me that a majority of the House and Senate, at a minimum, are opposed to this deal,” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters at the Capitol.
Many Republican lawmakers already have denounced the accord as inadequate, and a number of Democrats have said they’re sceptical as well. Still, members would have to muster two-thirds votes in both chambers to reject the deal over Obama’s veto.
Dispute over UN
A new dispute arose on Thursday as Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, and Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, the panel’s top Democrat, jointly wrote to Obama objecting to US participation in a UN Security Council resolution planned for next week to endorse the Iran accord.
“We are deeply concerned that your administration plans to enable the United Nations Security Council to vote on the agreement before the United States Congress can do the same,” they wrote. “We urge you to postpone the vote at the United Nations until after Congress considers this agreement.”
The resolution would provide for Iran to meet its commitments to reduce its nuclear programme and for the UN’s own sanctions to be lifted once its weapons inspectors confirmed those steps were taken. It wouldn’t affect national sanctions like those Obama is barred from easing until Congress completes its review.
“US sanctions are US sanctions, and UN sanctions are UN sanctions,” Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, a top negotiator of the Iran accord, told reporters at the State Department.
Obama received a boost in assembling support for the agreement on Thursday, when House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi gave it a full endorsement.
“I’ve closely examined this document, and it will have my strong support,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol.
Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the agreement has drawn “serious bipartisan concern” and that his panel was “eager to hear Secretary Kerry explain to us the details,” although a date for his testimony hasn’t been set.
