Iran agreement facilitates shift in power in Mideast: Analyst

The conclusion of nuclear talks between Iran, the United States and the five world powers will facilitate the shift in power in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia should live with this, says an American foreign policy analyst.

“I don’t think there is any way that the shift in the power of relationships in the region that the deal will facilitate can be avoided and there is something that these countries like Saudi Arabia will just have to learn to live with,” said James George Jatras, a former US diplomat and adviser to the Senate Republican leadership.

Jatras made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV when asked to comment on a trip made by US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to the region this week.

Carter arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to allay the kingdom’s concerns over the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries last week in Vienna, Austria.

The analyst said Carter is trying to reassure the countries in the region that “the nuclear agreement with Iran will not undercut their security interests.”

Iran and the P5+1 – the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – reached a conclusion on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on Tuesday.

According to the text of the JCPOA, Iran will be recognized by the United Nations as a nuclear power and will continue its uranium enrichment program.

“I don’t know that it will be particularly effective with these countries,” Jatras said. “I would say that the officials are essentially going through the motions. They are probably becoming in some cases with particular concessions of those countries may want it from Washington for a long time that will have nothing to do with the nuclear agreement at all.”

Carter was in Israel on Monday and Tuesday where he held meetings with Israeli leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He also met Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli minister for military affairs, and indicated the United States was ready to boost military ties with Israel.

According to a report published by the Jerusalem Post on Thursday, Washington has increased its military aid package to Israel in an attempt to comfort Tel Aviv over the conclusion of nuclear talks.

The package increase would include extra funding for the development of missile system, as well as another squadron of America’s fifth-generation aircraft, F-35 fighter jets.

According to the report, Israel requested between $4.2 billion and $4.5 billion a year for the next 10 years, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The new agreement would last for a decade after going into effect in 2018.

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