Pentagon chief to reassure Saudis on Iran outreach Antiwar Newswire
REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service
May 03, 2009 22:24 ESTBy Andrew Gray
ABOARD A U.S. GOVERNMENT AIRCRAFT, May 4 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday he would reassure Saudi Arabia this week that the kingdom would not suffer from Washington’s efforts to improve its relations with Iran.
President Barack Obama’s administration wants to engage diplomatically with Tehran, despite disagreements on a wide range of issues, most notably Iran’s nuclear program.
“One important message will be, particularly for the Saudis, that any kind of outreach to Iran will not be at the expense of our long-term relationships with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states that have been our partners and friends for decades,” he said.
“We will deal with this in a sensible way and in a way that hopefully increases the security of everybody in the region, not just us,” Gates told reporters aboard his plane as he flew from Washington to Cairo.
“While we’re willing to reach out to the Iranians, as the president said, with an open hand, I think everybody in the administration from the president on down is pretty realistic and will be pretty tough-minded if we still encounter a closed fist,” he said.
Gates said his two-day visit to Egypt, which includes a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, was likely to touch upon the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and efforts by Egypt, with U.S. assistance, to curb smuggling into the Gaza strip.
“The Egyptians have played a huge role in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian problem, in trying to be a go-between and (to) try and help move that process forward,” he said. (Editing by Louise Ireland)
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