(MENAFN- Arab Times)
DUBAI, Jan 17, (Agencies): At least 10 countries have offered to mediate in the escalating feud between Saudi Arabia and Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, noting that Tehran would restore ties with Riyadh if Saudi Arabia changes it regional policies. Answering a question about Iraq and Kuwait's reported offer to help defuse the tension between regional rivals, Rouhani said in a news conference broadcast live on state television: 'There are many countries. You mentioned Iraq and Kuwait. There are eight to 10 other countries in my mind now whose officials have talked to us about this.'
He said Iran is not seeking to eliminate Saudi Arabia from regional politics and will offer its help to Riyadh if 'it takes the right decision' and ends its military intervention in Yemen and stops what he called its meddling in Bahraini affairs. Iran's president on Tuesday compared talk of renegotiating its nuclear accord to 'converting a shirt back to cotton,' and said US President-elect Donald Trump's talk of doing so is 'mainly slogans.'
Trump has strongly criticized the deal struck with world powers, in which Iran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief, but has not said what he plans to do about the agreement. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told reporters that 'renegotiation has no meaning at all.' 'Mr Trump has so far made many remarks on the deal,' he added. 'These are mainly slogans. I do not see it as likely that something happens in practice.' He said the deal is beneficial to the United States, but that Trump 'doesn't understand this.'
The agreement also included Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. None have expressed interest in scrapping the deal or restoring sanctions. 'There will be no negotiations on the nuclear deal,' Rouhani said. 'The deal has been finalized and it was approved in the UN Security Council.' Rouhani, a moderate who has advocated greater openness toward the West, is up for re-election in May, in what will likely be seen as a referendum on the nuclear deal. He said the new administration in Washington would have no impact on the vote.
US President Barack Obama on Monday marked the first anniversary of the nuclear deal with Iran by emphasizing its 'significant and concrete results' and warning against undoing a pact supported by the world's major powers. In language that seemed clearly directed at incoming president Donald Trump, who is set to take office on Friday, Obama said 'the United States must remember that this agreement was the result of years of work, and represents an agreement between the world's major powers — not simply the United States and Iran.' He said the deal had 'achieved significant, concrete results in making the United States and the world a safer place' and 'verifiably prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.' Such a diplomatic solution, he added, was 'far preferable to an unconstrained Iranian nuclear program or another war in the Middle East.' Trump has often denounced the nuclear deal, and in a Sunday interview with the Times of London and Bild newspaper of Germany he continued his criticism, saying, 'I'm not happy with the Iran deal, I think it's one of the worst deals ever made.' But he declined to say whether he intended to 'renegotiate' the deal, as he asserted regularly during the presidential campaign.
Obama insisted Monday that despite US reservations about other actions by Iran — including its support for 'violent proxies' and 'terrorist groups' — Tehran was 'upholding its commitments, demonstrating the success of diplomacy.' Iran, he said, had 'reduced its uranium stockpile by 98 percent and removed two-thirds of its centrifuges.' 'There is no question, however, that the challenges we face with Iran would be much worse if Iran were also on the threshold of building a nuclear weapon,' Obama said. Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped negotiate the deal, said the Iran agreement had 'resolved a major nuclear threat without firing a shot or sending a single soldier into combat.' 'It was endorsed unanimously by the United Nations Security Council and earned the support of more than 100 countries across the globe,' he added. For all of Trump's sharp criticism of Iran and the nuclear deal, the policy he will embrace once in office remains unclear. One of his top cabinet nominees, retired Marine general James Mattis, said last week that if he is confirmed as defense secretary, he will support the nuclear deal. 'When America gives her word,' he told senators during his confirmation hearing, 'we have to live up to it and work with our allies.'
The pact was signed in July 2015 by Iran and six major powers — the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — and led to the lifting exactly a year ago of most international sanctions against Iran. Meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Monday he was positive about the way the incoming US administration wanted to restore American influence in the world, contain Iran and fight Islamic State. 'We are optimistic about the incoming administration and look forward to working with it in all areas that are a concern for both of us,' Jubeir told reporters in Paris.
'We will look at the Trump administration's view as articulated. Wanting to restore America's role in the world, we welcome this. Wanting to defeat ISIS (Islamic State), absolutely. Wanting to contain Iran … absolutely.' Jubeir said the interests of the world's largest oil exporter were aligned with those of the United States, be it geopolitically — in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran — or on energy and financial issues. 'The objectives we want to achieve are the same. We may have disagreements on how to get there, but we don't disagree on what needs to be done, and that will not change,' he said. When asked specifically about Riyadh's relationship with its Shi'ite regional rival Iran and whether there could be a detente between them, Jubeir accused Tehran of destabilising the region. Relations between the two worsened after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the 2015 Muslim haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Iran blamed the disaster on organisers' incompetence and boycotted last year's haj.
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