Saudi seeks to be part of any US deal with Iran

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Berlin, Germany on 21 February 2020 [Abdulhamid Hoşbaş/Anadolu Agency]




Saudi Arabia wants to be part of any deal between the incoming US administration and Iran, Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan told America’s CNBC on Saturday. Bin Farhan said that any deal with Iran would not only limit Tehran’s nuclear activities, but also seek to address its “regional malign activity”.

Such an accord, he suggested, could be labeled the “JCPOA++”, in reference to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement reached in 2015 on Iran’s nuclear programme with world powers including China, France, Russia, the US and the US plus Germany. The deal limited Iran’s nuclear power in return for lifting sanctions. In 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew America from what he called the “worst deal in history” and imposed crushing sanctions on Iran.



Bin Farhan also suggested that the potential JCPOA++ could go further than its predecessor by addressing Iran’s reported “arming of militias, whether it’s the Houthis in Yemen, or certain groups in Iraq or in Syria or Lebanon, and even beyond.”

According to the CNBC, the Saudi official also suggested that the new deal could address Iran’s “ballistic missile programmes and other arms programmes which [it] continues to use to spread havoc around the region.”

Source: Middle East Monitor