A top White House national security aide said President Obama and top administration officials are working to restore trust with Arab Gulf countries and to reassure them that U.S. negotiations with Iran will not threaten Washington’s willingness to come to their defense if Tehran threatens their security.
President Obama is meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council countries at Camp David Thursday and, at some point in the day, the White House expects to issue a joint statement with the nations outlining areas of mutual interest and shared national security goals.
The Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, both of whose leaders decided to skip the summit and send top lieutenants in their place, are worried about Iran’s dominance in the region and whether the negotiations between the U.S. and other Western allies with Tehran represent a rapprochement in the relationship.
Tensions are running so high in the Gulf region about Iran’s dominance that recent reports have suggested that any deal reached with Iran on its nuclear program could set off an arms race in the region with Saudi Arabia and others starting to pursue their own nuclear weapons program.
Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters Thursday that the U.S. has “never had any indication” from any of the countries that they are intending to pursue “the type of nuclear programs that would raise these types of concerns.”
“I think their concerns are focused on what Iran is doing across the region, and their concerns have to do whether or not within the context of the nuclear deal [with Iran], we are able to work with them to counter those types of activities,” he said.
Rhodes insisted that the U.S. is working to reassure the Gulf states that it will come to their defense and is already working to help bolster their abilities to counter threats by making their separate ballistic missile operations more integrated and beef up their cyber, maritime and special forces capabilities to guard against threats from Iran and terrorists such as the Islamic State.
“These are some of our closest partners in the region, and it’s important for them to have an understanding of what the nuclear deal is…and that a nuclear deal can contribute to the security of the region,” Rhodes said.
“We’ve been very clear [that any nuclear deal with Iran] is a transaction on a nuclear deal. This is not a broader rapprochement on range of issues,” he added. “…They are more likely to evolve in a more constructive direction in a world in which there’s a deal compared to a world in which there is no deal.”
On restoring trust, Rhodes said all the Obama administration can do is “to be very clear about our intentions.”
“People may agree or disagree with certain policies and we want to make clear this is where we stand and this is what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” he said. “These types of candid discussions do help with trust. Our approach on the Iran deal is we fundamentally believe it would help the region’s security.
“Some people may not agree with that, but we are going to lay out our argument…and why it is preferable to the alternatives.”
