The absence of most of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries at a summit with President Barack Obama later this week at Camp David reflects a fear that the emerging nuclear with Iran will endanger them, analysts told The New York Times today.

Gulf nations worry further that any sanctions relief that results from an agreement will give Iran even more money to fund its proxies.

“We assume the worst-case scenario, which is that Iran will continue to run its foreign policy in terms of more intervention and with the clout that Iran will feel as a result of having this agreement,” said Sami al-Faraj, head of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. “The United States today has left us in a sense alone.”

King Salman of Saudi Arabia’s decision not to attend the summit “is a diplomatic message that Saudi Arabia is not expecting anything new from Camp David. Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia is not pleased with the administration of President Obama, especially when it comes to the deal with Iran and the nuclear program,” Saudi analyst and former diplomat Abdullah al-Shammari told the Times.

An editorial (Google link) in The Wall Street Journal today quoted a Saudi analyst, Prince Faisal bin Saud bin Abdulmohsen, saying, “Our allies aren’t listening to us, and this is what is making us extremely nervous.” The editorial expanded on this:

Some kind of Saudi nuclear bomb seems inevitable if the Iran deal follows the “framework” outline. The deal would leave Iran with its nuclear facilities intact if under inspections, and thus as a nuclear threshold state. Even the threat of such a capacity will enhance Iran’s ability to leverage power in the region. The Sunni Arabs will want their own deterrent as a counterweight.

In a commentary published earlier this week, Salman Aldosary, editor in chief of the pan-Arab newspaper A Sharq al Awsat wrote:

The US wants to have its cake and eat it. It seeks to have distinguished relations with the Gulf and Iran at the same time. This equation is impossible to achieve, not because the Gulf harbors any feelings of hatred towards Tehran, but rather because the Iranian regime is founded on hostility towards its Arabian Peninsula neighbors and the bulk of its policies are aimed at interfering in their internal affairs.

Faisal Abbas, editor-in-chief of the Gulf-based Al-Arabiya network, similarly observed:

Indeed, trust levels between the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf have probably never been this low; this is certainly not good. Needless to say, a positive GCC-American relationship is extremely important, strategic and beneficial – not just for countries concerned, but also regionally and internationally.

But when the U.S. administration ignores legitimate concerns by its own allies and goes ahead with a nuclear deal which will unleash an unshackled Iran to do more harm to its neighbors and finance more proxy wars through groups the U.S. itself labels as terrorists, then Gulf countries simply can’t be blamed for voicing concerns.

[Photo: Associated Press / YouTube ]