US Secretary of State John Kerry gestures during a news conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal yesterday in Riyadh.

Agencies/Riyadh


US Secretary of State John Kerry told Gulf Arab states yesterday Washington was not seeking a “grand bargain” with Iran, and said a nuclear deal with Tehran would be in their interests.
The United State’s Gulf allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, are concerned that Iran will gain from any agreement to end years of dispute over its nuclear ambitions.
“Even as we engage in these discussions with Iran around its nuclear programme, we will not take our eye off of Iran’s other destabilising actions in places like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula, Yemen particularly,” Kerry said after meeting Saudi King Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.
“Let me underscore: we are not seeking a grand bargain. Nothing will be different the day after this agreement, if we were to reach one, with respect to all of the other issues that challenge us in this region.”
Kerry also met the foreign ministers of Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
The US secretary of state arrived in Riyadh late on Wednesday from Montreux, Switzerland, where he said he had made progress in talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif.
Gulf countries, like Israel and many Western states, fear Iran is using its atomic programme to develop a nuclear weapons capability, something Tehran denies.
Saudi Arabia and its allies worry that a nuclear accord will not stop Iran from gaining the bomb. They are also concerned it would ease international pressure on Tehran and give it more room to intervene in regional issues.
l Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister yesterday urged the US-led coalition conducting air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq to wage a ground war against the militants.
The kingdom, part of that coalition, “stresses the need to provide the military means needed to face this challenge on the ground,” Prince Saud al-Faisal said at a news conference with Kerry.
Several Arab countries have joined the air campaign against IS.
President Barack Obama, anxious to avoid a drawn-out ground war, has backed an air campaign, but ruled out deploying infantry.
The Saudi minister also warned of Iran’s growing role in Iraq, accusing the Shia-dominated Islamic republic of “taking over” the kingdom’s Arab neighbour through its aid in the fight against IS.
“Tikrit is a prime example of what we are worried about. Iran is taking over the country,” Faisal said of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain’s hometown.
The US military’s top officer, General Martin Dempsey, said on Tuesday that Iran’s help in an Iraqi offensive to recapture Tikrit could be “a positive thing” providing it did not fuel added sectarianism.
Yesterday the UN said military operations aimed at retaking Tikrit from IS have caused about 28,000 people to flee their homes.
“We have urged all Iraqi forces to avoid and prevent the abuse to civilians of any kind of activity that violates international norms, fuels sectarian fears, and promotes sectarian divides, and that includes Iran in terms of their activities,” Kerry said. Page 2

Qatar : Terrorism threatens humanitarian values


Qatar has stressed that terrorism poses a threat to humanitarian values and principles, and methods for countering it are not complying with international human rights standards, constituting a violation and an additional burden to the suffering caused by terrorism.
This came in a speech delivered by Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other international organisations in Geneva HE Faisal bin Abdullah al-Henzab.
The speech was delivered at the 28th session of the Human Rights Council, Interactive dialogue Item 2: Annual report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Al-Henzab said: “We share UN High Commissioner’s view that combating terrorism is one of the great challenges facing our world today.”
He stressed that the fight against terrorism has become an excuse for discrimination based on religion and ethnicity as well as a pretext for authoritarian regimes to supp ress their own people. He added that the worse is that the right of peoples to resist occupation guaranteed under international conventions, is named as  terrorism, one blessed by a number of countries that criminalise the victim and glorify the executioner and justify his actions, claiming the right to defend himself against terrorism.
He noted Israel’s arrogance in implementing its plans, its colonial and discriminatory policies, particularly with regard to the Judaisation of Jerusalem and to continue settlement activities in defiance of the international legitimacy, let alone halted engagement in serious negotiations to achieve peace based on terms of references agreed upon internationally.