Like Israel, U.S. Arab Allies Fear Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal

DUBAI-It isn't just about Bibi.

The Israeli prime minister's public confrontation with President Barack Obama over the U.S. administration's pursuit of a nuclear bargain with Iran may have drawn all the spotlight this week. But America's other key allies across the Middle East-such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates-are just as distraught, even if they lack the kind of lobbying platform that Benjamin Netanyahu was offered in Congress.
Analysis

These nations' ties with Washington have already frayed in recent years, dented by what many officials in the region describe as a nagging sense that America doesn't care about this part of the world anymore.

Now, with the nuclear talks nearing a deadline, these allies-particularly in the Gulf-fret that America is about to ditch its long-standing friends to win love from their common foe, at the very moment that this foe is on the offensive across the region.

"A lot of the Gulf countries feel they are being thrown under the bus," said Mishaal al-Gergawi, managing director of the Delma Institute in Abu Dhabi and a prominent Emirati political commentator. "The Gulf thought it was in a monogamous relationship with the West, and now it realizes it's being cheated on because the U.S. was in an open relationship with it."

Trying to assuage such concerns, Secretary of State John Kerry flew Wednesday to Saudi Arabia. There, he is slated to discuss with King Salman and foreign ministers of other Gulf nations their worries that the nuclear deal may enable Iran to dominate the region.

In remarks after Mr. Netanyahu's speech on Tuesday, Mr. Obama acknowledged Iran's "ambitions when it comes to territory or terrorism"-but argued that "if, in fact, they obtain a nuclear weapon, all those problems would be worse."

Steven Simon, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who served as senior director for Middle East and North Africa at the White House in 2011-12, noted that the Gulf countries-while genuinely alarmed by the U.S. outreach-can't really propose a viable alternative.

"The alternative to what the administration is doing with Iran is war," he said. "And I don't think the Saudis and the Emiratis and others are actually prepared for war."
America's other key allies across the Middle East are just as distraught about Obama's pursuit of a nuclear grand bargain with Iran. WSJ's Yaroslav Trofimov discusses. Photo: AP

A joint effort to contain Iran and its proxies after the 1979 Islamic revolution was the key reason for the massive architecture of military, political and economic ties that the U.S. built with its regional allies in recent decades.

Even before the revolution, Iran tried to dominate the Gulf, laying claim to Shiite-majority Bahrain and seizing disputed islands claimed by the U.A.E.

Taking advantage of the Obama administration's attempt to pivot away from the region, Tehran in recent years asserted its influence in Baghdad and solidified its control in Damascus and Beirut. Last month, pro-Iranian Houthi Shiite militias seized power in Yemen's capital San'a and ousted that country's U.S.-backed president.

The Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia that are engaged in proxy conflicts with Tehran in Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and Lebanon view this confrontation as an existential zero-sum game-and interpret any American opening to Iran, and any relaxation of the economic sanctions that have hobbled Iran's ability to project power, as succor to the enemy.

"Some of these countries are more worried about the consequences of the deal, about how it will change the balance of power in the region, rather than the actual contents of the deal," explained Ali Vaez, Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank. These fears are overblown, he said: "The reality is that the U.S. may have a tactical overlap in its interests in the region with Iran, but strategically it sees the region in a very different way."

That may be true, but this tactical overlap has already created strategic consequences in the crucial battlefields of Syria and Iraq, cementing Iran's sway in both nations.

The White House decision to focus the U.S. military effort exclusively on Islamic State, sparing the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, has allowed the regime and its Iranian-backed allies to regain ground there.

This means that even the fighters of the U.S.-funded Free Syrian Army, which is supposed to help defeat Islamic State one day, are no longer sure about which side Washington really supports.

"America wants to back whoever is stronger, and the strongest now are Iran and Bashar. This is clear to all people," said Bakri Kaakeh, a senior FSA officer in Aleppo province.

In Iraq's war against Islamic State, the U.S. has in fact become a cobelligerent with Iran, which maintains brutal Shiite militias and is directly involved in running major campaigns, such as the current assault on the Sunni city of Tikrit."Any opportunities that the Arab countries will have to undermine the deal, they will not miss it," said Riad Kahwaji, CEO of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai. "They will all conclude that the U.S. is no longer a reliable strategic ally, and that the U.S. can sell them out any minute."

Moeen al-Kadhimi, a senior commander in the largest Iraqi Shiite militia, Badr, which is armed by Iran and staffed with Iranian advisers, said he's yearning for the day when Tehran and Washington will finally reconcile.

"It's our wish as Iraqis for this to happen. We will be happy, and the entire Middle East will be stabilized," he said.

Stability under an Iranian tutelage, of course, isn't the most desirable outcome for other powers in the region, particularly in the Gulf. The big question is what can these allies do about it.

Not much, said Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a think tank close to the Obama administration.

"All of the fuss shows how much they need America. Who are they going to turn to? Russia or China?" he wondered. " No one has the security footprint, capabilities, and network of partnerships across the region."

But that doesn't mean the disgruntled allies won't start looking for ways to torpedo any U.S. opening to Iran-and for alternatives, including a nuclear option of their own, if that fails. Their dismay with the administration's Iran policy-while not displayed as publicly as Mr. Netanyahu's-is just as strong.