US-Gulf summit a show of 'Iranophobia' charges Tehran

Iran has dismissed this week's Camp David summit between US and Gulf leaders as a show of "Iranophobia" that will have no bearing on either nuclear negotiations or Arab states' ability to undermine the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to the Financial Times in a rare interview, Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said the meeting was a continuation of a longstanding tradition of US backing for Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners, with Riyadh now wanting even more support.

"We don't think the US hesitates in supporting Saudi Arabia. Now the Saudis want to draw the attention of the US to support them more."

The Camp David meeting, he added, would not be productive in any case, particularly as the Saudi King Salman bin Abdel Aziz had decided not to attend.

Mr Velayati also lashed out at Saudi Arabia, describing it as an "undemocratic, tribal government" that supported extremists across the Middle East, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the group known as Isis, and has been bombarding civilians in Yemen.

US President Barack Obama called for the Camp David summit to reassure jittery Gulf allies that the nuclear talks with Iran, which are fast approaching their end of June deadline, will not lead to an acceptance of Tehran's hegemony in the region, nor weaken America's traditional alliance with Sunni Arab states.

Arab leaders and officials attending the meeting are expected to press for more formal guarantees of security and more advanced arms sales to confront what the Gulf sees as a growing Iranian encroachment into Arab states. They fear that the lifting of sanctions on Iran after a nuclear accord will further embolden Tehran to flex its muscles through its proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

The summit comes as high tensions between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia have fanned fears of more Sunni-Shia violence across the region. After Riyadh launched a bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the tone of Iranian leaders has significantly hardened.

In the interview, Mr Velayati, who was once a favoured Iranian interlocutor with Arab states, said Riyadh had abandoned its traditional attitude and opted for confrontation. While other Iranian officials have been calling for dialogue with Riyadh and complaining that Saudis are refusing suggested visits by Iranian envoys, Mr Velayati said dialogue with the Saudis should be preceded by a change of policy in Riyadh. "They (the Saudis) are trying to fulfil their hegemony," he said. <

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Riyadh, he insisted, cannot consider Yemen as its backyard. "Yemen is an independent country with an old civilisation, much older than Saudi Arabia."

At Camp David, Arab leaders are also expected to press Mr Obama to back a more muscular policy in Syria, where they have been supporting rebels fighting to dislodge Iran-backed president Bashar al-Assad. Mr Velayati, however, said the Saudi campaign in Yemen had been a failure that should not be repeated in Syria. "Iran and Syria have had strategic relations which will continue. We will not stop our support for Syria and Lebanon," he warned. "Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are co-operating very closely."

Despite a growing sense of hope in official Iranian circles that the final details of the nuclear agreement will be settled by the June deadline, Mr Velayati was cautious. "We think this agreement is very delicate and very sensitive so both sides should be careful and not think we are at the end of the negotiations," he said. "We're in the middle of the negotiations and their outcome depends on US policy. Sometimes the US promises something and the next day they say something else."

Even if a nuclear deal is struck, Mr Velayati said normalisation of relations with the US was not likely, an attitude in line with the regime's official position. "The US will continue the same old policies," he said.

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