RIYADH – New US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo underscored the need forunity in the Gulf during a brief visit to the Saudi capital on Sunday asWashington aims to muster support among allies for new sanctions againstIran.
Pompeo reassured Saudi Arabia that the United States would abandon the 2015nuclear deal with Iran, reached under President Donald Trump’s predecessorBarack Obama, unless there is an agreement in talks with European partnersto improve it to make sure the Islamic Republic never possesses a nuclearweapons.
“Iran destabilises this entire region,” Pompeo said in a joint pressconference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. “It supports proxymilitias and terrorist groups. It is an arms dealer to the Houthi rebels inYemen. It supports the murderous Assad regime (in Syria) as well.”
Pompeo also addressed the rift between some Gulf countries and Qatar: “Gulfunity is necessary and we need to achieve it.”
Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, cutoff travel and trade ties with Qatar last June, accusing it of supportingterrorism and arch-rival Iran on the other side of the Gulf.
Doha has denied the accusations and has said its three fellow Gulfcountries aim to curtail its sovereignty. For its part, Iran deniessupporting terrorism or having sought to develop nuclear weapons.
Pompeo met briefly with Saudi King Salman on Sunday before heading directlyto Jerusalem for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel,Iran’s arch-enemy.
*IRANIAN BEHAVIOUR IN FOCUS*
The 15-minute encounter with the king took place at Irqah Palace, one ofhis residences. The 82-year-old monarch stood as Pompeo entered the roomand shook hands with his delegation.
Senior State Department officials had said Pompeo would discuss Iran’sbehaviour in the region and call for sanctions to curb the IslamicRepublic’s ballistic missile programme during his discussions with Saudileaders.
During Sunday’s press conference, Jubeir said, “Iran should be dealt withby imposing further sanctions for its violations of international lawsrelating to ballistic missiles.”
Yemen’s Houthi movement has fired over 100 missiles into Saudi Arabia, thelatest salvo killing a man in the southern Saudi province of Jizan onSaturday.
The attacks have fuelled accusations by the United States and the Saudi-ledcoalition that intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 that Iran isproviding the missiles to its Houthi allies. The Islamic Republic deniesthis.
Senior State Department officials also said Pompeo would urge Saudi Arabiaand other Gulf allies to resolve their nearly year-long dispute with Qatar.
The United States, which has military bases in both Qatar and some of thecountries lined up against it, is trying to mediate the feud. Trumppublicly sided with the Saudis and Emiratis early in the crisis but is nowpushing for a resolution to restore Gulf unity and maintain a united frontagainst Iran.
One US official said Washington feared the rift risked undermining effortsto contain Iranian influence and crush Islamist militants.
“Look, if we are going to be serious about mitigating and containing thethreat that Iran poses with a greater degree of unity of effort, unity ofpurpose, (that is all) the better … That is a message that isn’t new but ithas increased vigour.”
Just hours after being confirmed as Trump’s top diplomat, Pompeo set off ona whirlwind trip to NATO in Brussels and Middle East allies.
The trip comes as Trump considers whether or not to abandon by aself-imposed May 12 deadline the Iran nuclear deal he sees as deeplyflawed. He has called on Gulf allies to contribute funding and troops tostabilise areas in Iraq and Syria where a US-led coalition has largelydefeated Islamic State jihadists.
On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani poured scorn on US andEuropean discussions over changes to the nuclear accord and dismissed Trumpas a “tradesman” who lacked the qualifications to deal with a complexinternational pact.
The 2015 agreement limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel tohelp ensure it could not be turned to developing bomb material, and Tehransecured a removal of most international sanctions in return.
Iran has repeatedly said its ballistic missile programme has nothing to dowith its nuclear work and is non-negotiable.
Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France, the other signatories to the2015 nuclear pact, see it as the best way to prevent Iran from developingnuclear bomb capability.
Trump sees three defects in the deal: a failure to address Iranianballistic missiles; the terms under which U.N. inspectors can visitallegedly suspect Iranian nuclear sites; and “sunset” clauses under whichkey limits on the Iranian nuclear programme start to expire after 10 years.- Agencies