By LAWRENCE RIFKIN/THE MEDIA LINEIranian Presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a campaign meeting at the Mosalla mosque in Tehran, Iran(photo credit: REUTERS)
Expert says countries such as United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia understand they are outgunned in what is an existential disputeEarlier this week, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, urged Iran to come back to the table over a 2015 international nuclear accord from which Washington withdrew a year and a half ago.In withdrawing, the Trump Administration reinstated harsh economic sanctions. This led Iran to start taking steps away from the limitations imposed by the accord, and also to ramp up tensions in the region, for example, by harassing and even attacking commercial oil tankers, and perhaps even being behind a recent double airstrike that temporarily crippled Saudi Arabia’s oil industry.Gargash’s words – especially his hints that Gulf states should be part of any future negotiations aimed at shoring up the accord – seem to reinforce an apparent readiness to rethink what has been a loudly belligerent stance against Tehran.To learn more, The Media Line spoke with Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad, an Iran expert and visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
