US treads warily amid Iran-Saudi tensions
WASHINGTON (AP) - WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration tread warily Monday around inflamed tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia that threaten several key U.S. foreign policy objectives.
A U.S. official said Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken Sunday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif , while the official Saudi Press Agency reported that Kerry had spoken on Monday with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Salman.
Kerry is also planning to make a round of calls Monday to the foreign ministers of all the Sunni-led states in the Persian Gulf region, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, the U.S. official said. Bahrain followed Saudi Arabia's lead and severed diplomatic ties with Iran, while the UAE downgraded its diplomatic relations with it.
The U.S. official said Kerry's message is to urge calm and warn against overreaction that some fear could lead to a sectarian war between Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Shiite-ruled Iran.
U.S. officials said the administration is loath to insert itself into the row between Riyadh and Tehran but wants to ensure the viability of the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, nascent attempts to end Syria's civil war and the Iran nuclear deal.
Several officials said one of Washington's primary and most immediate concerns is the potential effect the spat could have on the fragile cooperation in Iraq between the Iraqi security forces, which answer to an Iran-friendly government, and Sunni and Shiite militias that are fighting Islamic State extremists. That cooperation has shown gains in recent weeks, notably with the Iraqi recapture of the provincial capital of Ramadi from the Islamic State group.
Officials were preparing for a high-level U.S. conversation with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to stress the importance of continuing the Iraqi government's outreach to Sunni militias, the officials said.
Also of concern is the state of the Syrian peace effort, which is supposed to swing into high gear in late January with U.N.-sponsored negotiations between Saudi-backed opposition forces and the Iranian-supported government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. A U.S. official said Kerry had spoken on Sunday with the U.N special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to gauge any impact Saudi-Iranian developments might have on the planned Jan. 25 start of negotiations. There was no immediate indication that those talks would be disrupted, the official said.
In addition to Kerry, other senior U.S. diplomats were in close contact with Saudi and Arab officials over the weekend, according to the U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to the delicate diplomacy.