Uneasy realisation

US President Barack Obama may have made clear that no deal with Iran will endanger the security of the Gulf region, but he failed to offer the Arab Gulf countries a defence pact.

During the Camp David meeting held about two weeks ago, Obama failed to convince Gulf Arab leaders that the US is not disengaging slowly from the region.

Obviously, the American administration does not understand the Arabs’ legitimate security concerns and therefore has failed to reconfirm the American commitment in the region.

To be sure, Iran does not have the military option to invade other Arab states. Therefore, the Arabs’ concerns are not really about an invasion, but about Iran’s continuous meddling in their affairs.

Obama’s assurances that his country would defend the Gulf countries from an external threat do not resonate well in this part of the world.

Obama seems incapable of understanding the consequences of his flirting with Iran and the result of his apparent inaction in the face of Iranian bullying in the region. 

Political pundits in the Arab world argue that the US should wake up before it is too late. Obama’s calculation that a deal with Iran could change the Islamic Republic’s revisionism is naïve, to say the least.

Iran will most likely use the deal to realise two objectives: lift the sanction and free frozen assets.

Moreover, Tehran may use the flow of cash to further flex its muscle in the region.

The Arabs’ concern is not only about the nuclear deal, but also about the repercussion of such a deal on the internal affairs of the Arab countries.

Do the Gulf countries have a choice other than wait for the US to step in and prop up stability in the region?

Not long ago, the Gulf countries began to take the initiative in the region.

Rather than wait for the US, the Gulf countries put their house together and began to create a new strategic reality, independent of Washington’s position. 

The air strikes in Yemen and coordination with Turkey to change the balance of military power in Syria should be seen as a message to the US and Iran that the Gulf countries will not sit idle by while Iran continues its aggressive policies unchecked.

 Over the last two months, Saudi Arabia has shown that there is a huge difference between cutting a deal with Iran and compromising the security of the Gulf region for the sake of an “Obama’s legacy” in the region.

The dominant theme in the Gulf region is that Obama is falling in the Iranian trap of appeasement.

No matter what Obama thinks, the Arabs insist that Iran is nothing but a revisionist state that will do what it takes to destabilise the region as a whole.

The Gulf countries are sending a clear message to the US that the relationship had better be a two-way process; there is a difference between being in a strategic partnership with the US and being dependent on Washington.

A close look at the statements coming from senior officials in the Gulf countries reveals that their countries will never accept having the security of the Gulf subordinate to the imperatives of an American-Iranian rapprochement.

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