By Mel Frykberg | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RAMALLAH (IDN) \u2013 <\/strong>Regional reactions to the April 2 framework agreement on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme have been mixed both in Israel and its Arab neighbourhood. Vested interests including geopolitical ambitions, economic competition, religious ideology, personal political ambition, and strategic alliances have all played their part in this mixed reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As one of the chief antagonists to any deal reached between the P5 +1 \u2013 five permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus Germany \u2013 and Iran, the predictable reaction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the agreement has been one described by Israeli critics as \u201chysterical\u201d and \u201cright-wing reactionary\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Days before the framework agreement was reached, Netanyahu continued to try and pressure the US administration to back out of any accord, claiming that Iran represented an existential threat to Israel, while simultaneously dredging up the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the deal was done, much of Israel\u2019s extreme right-wing cabinet was in agreement that US President Barack Obama had thrown Israel under the bus \u2013 as if the central issue of the agreement reached was Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Netanyahu, convinced of a higher calling, tried unsuccessfully to force Obama into obtaining an agreement from Iran that recognition of Israel\u2019s right to exist was a prerequisite for any nuclear deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli commentator Alex Fishman voiced what many Israelis feel in Israel\u2019s right-leaning \u2018Ynet<\/em> News\u2019<\/em> website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur friends in Washington have sold us out, along with their other allies in the Middle East, for a pittance\u201d, was how he summed up the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fishman argued that the interim agreement was evidence of the strategic importance Iran attributes to its military nuclear programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, not all Israelis concur with their government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prof Haggai Ram, head of Middle East Studies Department at Israel\u2019s Ben Gurion University and an expert on Iran, challenged that assessment, stating that the claim that Iran presented an existential threat was a fig leaf for Israel\u2019s occupation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ram said that for years Israel argued that peace with the Arabs was impossible and when that bogeyman turned out to be false they looked for a new one \u2013 Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBasically, since 1996 they have warned us that in a year, Iran will have a nuclear weapon,\u201d said Ram in an interview with the left-leaning Israeli daily \u2018Haaretz.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s assume they are on the way. Are they intending to use nuclear capabilities to destroy Israel?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn my opinion, the answer is a sweeping and unequivocal no. Most historians of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979 point out that Iranian policy is not dictated by messianic or religious considerations but rather pragmatic ones based on state interests,\u201d said Ram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo say Iran poses an existential threat to Israel is wrong, if not a deception. Israel has bigger and more dangerous enemies. Iran serves as a fig leaf to the real danger to Israel\u2019s fate \u2013 the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Israeli government was not the only one in the region voicing concerns about Iran\u2019s regional political ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strange bedfellows<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, Israel has found strange bedfellows in a number of Arab governments who have also voiced scepticism over the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samir Altaqi and Esam Aziz from the Middle East Briefing (MEB), a research and risk advisory company, believe the Arabs have reasons to question Iran\u2019s motives. In an article, \u2018What to Expect From the Arabs After the Iran Nuclear Deal\u2019<\/em>, MEB said: <\/em>\u201cThe Region\u2019s leaders do not reject a nuclear deal with Iran as a matter of principle, but they see the whole issue of Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme from a different perspective from that of Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey understand that for any country to seek a nuclear weapon means one of two things: either it is trying to build a decisive retaliatory capacity or it is trying to expand its influence out of its borders through nuclear blackmail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The article went on to point out regional polarisation, citing the disintegration of Yemen as an example where the Iranians have supported the Houthis. Further examples of Iranian interference include Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria and Bahrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe problem here is that Iran \u2013 without a nuclear bomb, but free of sanctions and of any serious restrictions on its ballistic capabilities \u2013 will still be more aggressive in the regional theatre,\u201d said MEB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunni Saudi Arabia, whose military is fighting against the Houthis in Yemen, is also wary of its Shi\u2019ite adversary and the deal reached with Iran, believing that Iranian influence flourishes on weak central governments and sectarian instability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Saudi cabinet released a conciliatory public statement in regard to the Iran deal but simultaneously called for \u201ccommitment to the principles of good neighbourliness and non-interference in the internal affairs of the Arab countries and respect of their sovereignty\u201d even though the Saudis and Iran are backing opposing sides in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nasser Ahmed Bin Ghaib, a researcher from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), told \u2018Al Jazeera\u2019 <\/em>the Gulf States with their struggling economies are worried about economic competition, with the possibility of cheap Iranian oil flooding a saturated oil market and further lowering prices, following Western acceptance of Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there are also mixed reactions to the Iran deal in the Gulf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose who support a deal argue it would prevent the region from sliding into a destructive nuclear arms race that would deplete everybody. But others say the deal will have a number of negative consequences for the Gulf,\u201d Bin Ghaib told \u2018Al Jazeera.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Egyptian political analyst Ahmed Abd-Rabo told Egyptian daily \u2018Al Ahram\u2019 <\/em>he believes sectarianism in the Middle East seems the most likely outcome as the feud between Sunnis and Shias deepens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis follows anxiety in the Saudi-led Sunni camp following the conclusion of the framework agreement between Iran, the leader of the Shia camp, and the West,\u201d said Abd-Rabo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turkey for its part is also divided over the Iran question. Akin Unver, assistant professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, says Turkey\u2019s Iran policy shifted in the wake of the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afraid of Iran\u2019s regional ambitions Turkey was complicit in NATO\u2019s defence shield in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHowever, playing out behind the shadow of Iran’s nuclear programme was Turkey’s strategy of securing an eventual Iranian contribution to the European Union’s Southern Gas Corridor \u2013 first, in the form of Nabucco, and after it was discarded, the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project,\u201d explained Unver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So despite being disappointed about being sidelined diplomatically during negotiations with Iran, Turkey could still reap some benefits from Iran in the form of Iran being connected to the Southern Gas Corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most Iranians are elated at the prospect of rejoining the international community as a respected member, except of course for Iranian hardliners who believe the Iranian leadership has been too accommodating with the American \u201cGreat Satan\u201d. [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 8 April 2015]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo: The ministers of foreign affairs of France, Germany, the European Union, Iran, the United Kingdom and the United States as well as Chinese and Russian diplomats announcing the framework of a Comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme (Lausanne, 2 April 2015). Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mel Frykberg | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis RAMALLAH (IDN) \u2013 Regional reactions to the April 2 framework agreement on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme have been mixed both in Israel and its Arab neighbourhood. Vested interests including geopolitical ambitions, economic competition, religious ideology, personal political ambition, and strategic alliances have all played their part in this mixed reaction. 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