‘Nobody would be naive enough to go back to Iran deal’

Saudi Arabia’s UN envoy on Sunday dismissed the idea that the United States would re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under a Joe Biden administration.

Speaking in an interview on Fox News, the ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, said nobody would be “naive enough” to go back to a deal that has “proven its failure to the entire world.”

Asked whether he believed Biden’s administration would pivot from the Gulf states, as was the focus under President Donald Trump, back to Iran and the nuclear deal, Al-Mouallimi said he did not.

“No, I think that the Iran nuclear deal has proven its failure to the entire world. And I don’t think that anybody is going to be naive enough to go back to the same deal,” he said.

“If there is a new deal in which Saudi Arabia is involved in the discussion and which covers the shortcomings of the previous deal, such as Iran’s hydromantic behavior in the region and the issue of the missiles and the supply of weapons to rebel groups and so forth, then we will be all for it,” added the Saudi ambassador.

The Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in 2018, and has been ramping up the sanctions against it in recent weeks.

Biden has indicated he would return to the nuclear deal with Iran, and a close aide to him said last week that rejoining the Iran nuclear deal was “high on the agenda” of the President-elect.

During the negotiations between Iran and world powers on the 2015 nuclear deal, Saudi Arabia and other major Sunni states expressed concern over a deal which would allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons – a position which placed them very close to Israel’s position on the matter.

Ultimately, however, Saudi Arabia’s government announced that it welcomed the deal.

Recently, Saudi King Salman reaffirmed the seriousness of the Iranian regime’s malign regional influence. He called on the international community to take a firm stand toward the Iranian regime, as well as for a radical solution to be found to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear and ballistic missile programs.