US offers Gulf allies help over Iran

The US has offered its Gulf allies new military assistance to deal with potential missile attacks and cyber threats from Iran but stopped short of the broader security guarantees that some of the countries were looking for.

At a Camp David summit on Thursday with countries from the Gulf Co-operation Council, Barack Obama said the US would "work jointly" with the Gulf countries if they were ever attacked, adding that they were looking for new ways to resist Iranian activities that threatened the stability of the region.

"We agree that the security relationship between the United States and our GCC partners will remain a cornerstone of regional stability," he said. "We all have responsibilities."

The summit was called by the White House after its announcement in March of a "framework" nuclear agreement with Iran in order to find ways to reassure America's Gulf allies on the nature of the talks with Tehran.

Many of the Sunni Gulf countries fear that the nuclear deal will be the start of a broader rapprochement between the US and Iran that will allow Tehran to expand its influence around the region. At the weekend, Saudi Arabia announced that King Salman would not attend the meeting, in what was widely interpreted as a calculated snub of Mr Obama's nuclear diplomacy.

Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, said the summit had been "historic" and "very productive". He said the Saudis would welcome any deal that prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, said the proposed agreement with Iran was "a transaction on the nuclear issue". It was "not a broader rapprochement between the United States and Iran. It is a very specific agreement that will deal with the Iranian nuclear programme," he said.

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Critics of the nuclear deal in Israel, the Gulf and the US argue that the lifting of sanctions will give Iran substantial resources to pursue a more confrontational foreign policy in the region.

Mr Obama countered that most of Iran's "destabilising" activities were "low-tech and low cost" and would not be helped by a bigger budget. Moreover, he said the Iranian government would face domestic pressure to use a nuclear deal to boost living standards at home.

Ahead of the summit, there were predictions about new multibillion-dollar arms deals being signed. In the event, the joint statement called for the "fast-tracking" of arms transfers to the GCC, especially in areas such as cyber security, maritime security and counter-terrorism.

US officials said they would work with the GCC to build a co-ordinated missile defence system.

Mr Obama also suggested that some Gulf countries made themselves vulnerable to security problems because of political repression. "True and lasting security includes governance that serves all citizens and respect universal rights," he said.

The administration rejected suggestions that some of the Gulf countries would seek to build their own nuclear enrichment programmes to match the one Iran is likely to be allowed to keep under the proposed nuclear agreement.

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