Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

John Kerry Assures Arab Allies No ‘Grand Bargain’ With Iran

(Reuters) — Secretary of State John Kerry reassured Gulf Arab states on Thursday that Washington was not seeking a “grand bargain” with Iran, in reference to wider political and security cooperation, and said a nuclear deal with Tehran would be in Gulf interests.

The United State’s Gulf allies, particularly the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are concerned that Shi’ite Muslim Iran will be left empowered by a mooted agreement to end years of dispute over its nuclear ambitions.

But after meetings with King Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisl, Kerry made clear that Washington would not ignore Iran’s activities.

“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,” said Kerry.

The U.S. secretary of state arrived in Riyadh late on Wednesday from Montreux, Switzerland, where he said he had made progress in talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Gulf countries, like Israel and many Western states, fear that Iran is using its atomic program to develop nuclear weapons capability, something Tehran denies.

Saudi Arabia regards Iran as its main regional rival and the two countries back opposing sides in wars and political struggles across the region, often along sectarian lines.

As such, Saudi Arabia and its allies worry that a possible atomic accord will not stop Iran from gaining the bomb. They are also concerned that it would lift international pressure on Tehran and give it more room to intervene in regional issues.

Speaking alongside Kerry, Prince Saud said the involvement of Iran in the push being made by Iraqi forces alongside Shi’ite militias to retake the city of Tikrit from Islamic State was a “prime example” of what worries Saudi Arabia.

He said Iran was taking over Iraq.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.