Saudi Arabia’s 85-year-old King Salman bin Adulaziz told the U.N. General Assembly today that he backed all efforts by U.N. member states to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran’s 60-year-old President Ebrahim Raisi expressed interest in resuming the P5+1, including the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany, to get Iran back to compliance with the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] designed to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment. Former President Donald Trump cancelled U.S. involvement in the JCPOA to re-impose strict economic sanctions, including banning all of Iran’s international oil sales, unless they stop their proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel. Iran’s has waged proxy war against the Kingdom since 2015, using Yemen’s Houthi rebels to fire drones and Cruise missiles at Riyadh’s International Airport and Aramco oil refineries.
Raisi expressed interest in returning to multilateral talks in Vienna to get Iran back into compliance with the JCPOA, enriching uranium to only 3.5%. Since Trump backed out of the deal May 8, 2018, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni gave the green light for Iran to enrich uranium to over 60%, just below weapons grade. “The Kingdom insists on the importance of keeping the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, on this basis we support international efforts aiming at preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons,” said King Salman, no doubt angering the Ayatollah. King Salman knows that Israel posses an unknown number of nuclear weapons, something considered “strategic ambiguity” where Israel neither admits nor denies that it stockpiles atomic weapons at unknown locations. King Salman is well-aware that Iran’s Houthi rebels have waged proxy war with the Kingdom since 2015.
Iran has always denied that its uranium enrichment program has been anything but for peaceful purposes. Pakisistan’s A.Q Khan, who built Pakistan’s bomb in 1998, always called it a “peacemaker” since it kept India out of Kashmir and Pakistan. “Iran is a neighboring country, and we hope that our initial talks with it will lead to concrete results to build confidence . . . .based on . . . .respect of sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs,” King Salman said. King Salman backs the P5+1 resumption of talks to return to the JCPOA, reducing Iran’s break-out-time to the bomb. Ayatollah Khamenei wants the U.S. to end all economic sanctions before Iran agrees to curtail its uranium enrichment. Biden will no doubt acquiesce to a multilateral approach to U.S. foreign policy, placating world power that the U.S. no longer subscribes to Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
Trump’s “America First” foreign policy was used by Biden in the 2020 election to contrast his multilateral foreign policy approach. Trump wanted the European Union to know that U.S. foreign policy was built on what’s good for national security, not for EU foreign policy. Biden infuriated France when he supported Australia canceling a $48 billion diesel-powered submarine deal because it no longer served Australia’s need for a long-range submarine capable to going thousand of miles without refueling. Whatever the reason Australia needs to cancel the deal, it was not out of spite but purely what worked for Australia’s Navy. So when Biden tries to mend fences or present himself that “America is back,” France rejects any differences with his predecessor. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the U.S. under Biden is no different that it was under Trump, breaking U.S. commitments.
King Salman spoke to the U.N. because Saudi Arabia’s 36-year-old de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s an international pariah for the Oct. 2, 2018 death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has made an off-record pact with Israel to monitor Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and progress toward a bomb. Whatever Iran’s denials, the rest of the world knows that Iran committed itself to developing an A-bomb. When the Ayatollah told Iran’s nuclear industry to ramp up uranium enrichment to weapons grade, it wasn’t to run power plants or for use in medical isotopes. Iran seeks the bomb much like Pakistan to neutralize U.S. influence in the Persian Gulf. Iran sees what the bomb did for Pakistan and wants it to neutralize U.S. and Israeli influence in the Middle East. Only the bomb can give Iran the power to blackmail its neighbors.
When the P5+1 meet with Iran in Vienna in the next few weeks, Iran will push to have all sanctions lifted before it discusses any concessions with its nuclear enrichment program. Khamenei knows what the P5+1 wants but won’t give it unless the U.S. agrees immediately to end economic sanctions. King Salman wants Iran to stop supplying arms-and-cash to Yemen’s Houthi rebels that have been waging war with the Kingdom since 2015. Unless the Ayatollah agrees to stop waging proxy war against the Kingdom, no deal will contain Iran’s feverish pursuit of an A-bomb. “The Kingdom continues to fight extremist thinking, built on hatred, and keeping in check terrorist organizations and sectarian militants that destroy humanity and nations,” King Salman said. King Salman wants the P%+1 to know that he supports Iran returning to the JCPOA to stop its feverish pursuit of an A-bomb.
