Obama administration officials are promising a major strengthening of U.S. defense commitments to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies, possibly including a nuclear commitment to their security, in an intensifying effort to win their support for the proposed nuclear deal with Iran.
Officials say they hope to reassure nervous gulf Arab states by providing more military aid and training to their defense forces, and by making more explicit commitments to help them repel external attacks.
The administration is studying whether to make any nuclear assurances, though officials emphasize no decision has been made.
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One challenge for the White House is whether it can expand a defense relationship that already is enormous.
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It's also not clear that U.S. nuclear security commitments would be useful or welcomed by the gulf states.
The administration would have a hard time trying to get Congress, which has been skeptical about the U.S.-Saudi relationship, to enact a treaty that put a U.S. nuclear "umbrella" over Arab Sunni nations, as the United States has over Japan and South Korea.
Such agreements aim to deter nuclear attack by warning foes that the United States would retaliate with overwhelming force if an ally is attacked with a nuclear weapon.
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Another possible gesture would be to declare the gulf states "major non-NATO allies," said Thomas Lippman, a Saudi specialist at the nonpartisan Middle East Institute in Washington. The designation, applied to close allies like Japan, Australia and Israel, provides special help in buying weapons and obtaining U.S. weapons.
This, if true, is insane. Though I do wonder about the article's provenance. Sure are a lot of unspecified 'officials' mentioned in the article. And it doesn't appear to actually be a new story at that. Seems it was being reported in the Israeli media over a month ago:
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Analysis-US-Sunni-states-talk-about-regional-nuclear-umbrella-393131
http://www.haaretz.com/news/1.645573
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/192178
From the latter two, it seems their source was an Arabic paper, al-Hayat. Huh.
I want to be sceptical. But this is Barack Obama & John Kerry we're talking about. Given the completely ham-handed way they've handled Ukraine...I think I could believe it. And so what happens next ? Does Russia do a deal with Iran to promise them their own 'nuclear umbrella' ? What could possibly go wrong with drawing the battlelines of a new Cold War between the West and Russia across the heart of the Middle East and the Sunni/Shia divide ? Have we learned nothing in the hundred years since, from the Great War of 1914-18 ?
Insane.
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