US Secretary of State John Kerry will seek to ease tensions on Iran’s nuclear program in a meeting with the Persian Gulf Arab officials in Qatar in the near future, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat said in an interview with the US official.
“I will be traveling to Doha in the next couple of weeks to meet with the whole (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council,” Kerry told the paper in an interview published on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
(P)GCC is a group of Arab countries comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.
“I think we can persuade them both that by being more effective in our counter-push as well as through the restraints we have, they will be significantly strengthened going forward.”
Israel is implacably opposed, and Arab allies of the US such as Saudi Arabia are concerned the arrangement would benefit Iran.
Kerry’s diplomatic outreach follows a summit with Persian Gulf Arab leaders called by US President Barack Obama at Camp David in May, which was snubbed by the leaders of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Despite their misgivings, Kerry said, the US aims to convince its allies the deal was in their interests.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter also met his Israeli counterpart Moshe Ya’alon on Tuesday to ease concerns over Iran and world powers’ historic deal.
