Abu Dhabi: Iran will be forced back to the negotiating table to broker a new nuclear deal because European support for the existing pact won’t be enough to save it now that the US has withdrawn, Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs said.
Tehran will come to that realisation within the “coming weeks,” Gargash said in an interview with Bloomberg in Abu Dhabi late on Sunday.
“There has to be a new deal with new boundaries” that extends restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme, and addresses its ballistic missile programme and “regional meddling”, he said, a reference to Iranian support for the regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria and militant groups like Hezbollah and Al Houthis.
“There is an Iranian bet on a dispute between the Americans and the Europeans,” Gargash said. “I think this bet is out of place. A unified and clear message to Iran would increase the chance of finding new alternatives.”
This came as new US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said in a speech outlining the US approach to Iran that the nuclear deal was “a loser” with huge repercussions throughout the Middle East.
Last month, Pompeo visited Saudi Arabia on his first trip as the US’s top diplomat. One objective was to resolve a yearlong dispute between Qatar and three of its neighbours on the ground that unity within the Gulf is essential to facing Iran. Gargash rejected that logic, saying the dispute with Qatar “shouldn’t be considered an obstacle to a unified position on Iran”.
“The Qatar crisis is a Gulf issue that must be solved within the Gulf,” he said, holding out no hope for a quick res-olution. “Sadly, stubbornness has overruled wisdom” in Qatar, he said.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE., Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and transport links with Qatar on June 5, accusing the country of supporting extremist groups.
