Secretary of Defense Ash Carter met today with King Salman and his defense minister, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah on the Red Sea coast to reassure Saudi Arabia about U.S. commitment to their security. Secretary Carter is also slated to meet with GCC military officials, per remarks made by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir last week alongside U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Following the P5+1 deal with Iran over its nuclear program, Obama Administration officials are touting the benefits of the plan to keep the Middle East region nuclear-free.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in Jordan on Tuesday, July 21, 2015.
President Obama met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir last week at the White House to discuss the deal. In a readout by the White House, the President said that Saudi Arabia “welcomed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached between the P5+1, EU and Iran on July 14 which, once fully implemented, will effectively cut off all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon and verifiably ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful going forward.”
The meeting with the President followed a discussion with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Al-Jubeir and Kerry gave a joint press conference and “discussed the situation in the Middle East in general, the Iran nuclear agreement, the situation in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, counterterrorism, and how to confront Daesh and defeat it, God willing,” the Foreign Minister said.
Here are the full remarks on the Iran deal by Saudi Foreign Minister Al-Jubeir:
“I think in general, all of us in the region want to see a peaceful resolution to Iran’s nuclear program. We all look forward to an agreement that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability, that has a robust and continuous inspections regime to make sure that Iran does not violate the terms of the agreement, and that has an effective and quick snapback provision that allows the re-imposition of sanctions against Iran should it violate the terms of that agreement.
Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and Secretary of State John Kerry last week at a meeting in Washington.
We all support the continuation of the sanctions against Iran related to counterterrorism and related to its support for terrorism and other issues. And we hope that the Iranians, if a deal is implemented, that the Iranians will use this deal in order to improve the economic situation in Iran and to improve the lot of the Iranian people, and not use it for adventures in the region.
And we are committed that if Iran should try to cause mischief in the region, we are committed to confront it resolutely. And so we are – we will – we’re looking at this agreement and we will be studying it, and we are discussing it with our friends in the United States. But the bottom line is everybody wants a good deal, and so we expect that with time we will be exchanging ideas with our friends in the U.S. and with the other P5+1 countries, and in order to get at questions – answers to some of the questions we may have.”
