Loading ...Mixed Middle East Reaction to Iran Deal
The Iran nuclear deal has implications throughout the Middle East. Once sanctions are lifted in exchange for Iran curtailing its nuclear program, Iran is set to return as an economic and political powerhouse in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, with its’ Sunni monarchy, has been one of the most vocal critics of any lifting of sanctions against Iran, so much so that the historically good relations between the US and the kingdom have soured since the beginning of Washington’s rapprochement with Tehran. The two Middle East regional powers’ rivalry has grown increasingly tense with the launching of Saudi airstrikes against Houthi fighters in Yemen – a force widely viewed as one of Iran’s many proxies.
“People (in Saudi Arabia) are disappointed, highly disappointed, because of the role Iran has played in the region,” Siraj Wahab, a journalist with the Saudi based English language newspaper Arab News, told The Media Line. “(In) Yemen, Iraq, Syria… Iran has played the role of mischief and trouble maker.”
Within the kingdom a general perception that the Obama administration has taken the wrong path is widespread, Wahab said. At the same time Saudis are dismayed that so many people have been killed in Syria, with the active support of Tehran, and “instead of holding Iran to account the US has actually rewarded them,” the journalist explained.
Iran views President Bashar Al-Assad of Syria as a key ally and has been the primary supporter of his increasingly shaky regime. This has in part allowed the Syrian civil war to stagger on for four years and has had implications for the embattled county’s neighbors, including Turkey.
But if the signing of a deal between Iran and the P5+1 matters, Turks might not have noticed yet, Semih Idiz, a foreign policy writer at Cumhuriyet Daily newspaper, told The Media Line. Local media and much of the population are engrossed and distracted by the reigning Justice and Development Party’s attempts to form a coalition – a drama caused by the failure of President Recep Erdoğan’s party’s to win an outright majority in recent elections.
This does not diminish the implications of the Iran deal for Turkey and those in the know are aware of it, Idiz said, pointing to two former Turkish foreign ministers who told him that the consequences were huge and meant lasting changes to the Middle East.
Relations between Ankara and Tehran have often been pragmatic, Idiz said, “even if there is no love lost over Syria the mutually beneficial relationship will continue.” If anything, Idiz went on, relations between the two countries could improve as Turkey is forced to recognize Iran as “a serious player” following the Shi’ites state’s successful negotiations with the US and its continuing alliance with Russia.
A rapid upsurge in the Iranian economy and the increased ability this will give the country to project its foreign policy is very much on the minds of opinion makers in Lebanon. The group Hizbullah, both one of Iran’s most successful proxies and a key power holder within Lebanon, is likely to gain from a new influx of Iranian money, Mario Abu Zeid, of the Carnegie Endowment think tank in Beirut, told The Media Line. This has caused some unease in the small Mediterranean country among those opposed to the Shi’ite organization.
Hizbullah’s strength had been degraded in recent years due to a combination of casualties in Syria, where the group props up the Assad regime, and diminished funding from Tehran, a consequence of sanctions, Zaid said. As money flows back into the Iranian economy, Hizbullah is likely to find itself replenished and rearmed, he concluded.
But not everybody in the region was against the Iran deal. For the “general public (in Lebanon) it’s a good outcome, because it prevented war,” Zeid concluded. In many people’s eyes war was the only solution other than talking, he stated, and there is “enough wars in this region.”
Source: www.themedialine.org