British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond said on Saturday he believed that if a final nuclear deal was concluded between Tehran and the major powers, it could help reduce frictions between Iran and the Persian Gulf Arab states.
“There are many bases of mistrust between Iran and its neighbors in the (Persian) Gulf, between Iran and the West, but the nuclear file is the key element here,” Hammond told a security conference in Bahrain, Reuters reported.
“If we can resolve that in a way that is satisfactory to Iran and satisfactory to the West, a series of things will then happen and they’ll happen quite quickly which will change the dynamics and create an opportunity,” he said.
Elsewhere, he said Britain and other powers negotiating with Iran for a comprehensive deal over its nuclear program must not make “unwise concessions” for the sake of convenience.
Iran and the six powers - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany - failed last month to resolve a 12-year stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear work, and gave themselves seven more months to clinch an historic deal.
“We must choose persistence over convenience ... upholding our principle position on enrichment rather than succumbing to the temptation to make unwise concessions to get a deal done,” Hammond said.
