Gates in Saudi Arabia to seek help in isolating Tehran

Shell joins embargo of refined oil to Iran

By ICEJ News

11 Mar 2010

Weeks after Riyadh called for “immediate resolution” of the Iranian nuclear standoff, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as part of the slow-moving American diplomatic efforts to build international pressure on Iran through a yet-to-be-approved regime of tighter economic sanctions.

"We are certainly hopeful that the Saudis will use whatever influence they have, which is considerable, in this region and throughout the world to try to help us in our efforts at the UN so that we can get meaningful sanctions enacted against Iran," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said of Gates’ visit.

Saudi Arabia is the leader of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which also includes the Sunni dominated United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.  These countries have all expressed great anxiety about the rise of Shi’ite Iran, and the US, Britain and France have taken measures to beef up their own military presence in the Persian Gulf, while also selling large amounts of military equipment to the Gulf Arab states to deter Iranian aggression.

The Saudis in particular are highly skeptical that economic sanctions will be enough to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons and threatening their neighbors. They note that North Korea has been under a nearly 100% economic blockade by most of the world and yet has still managed to build atomic weapons and ballistic missile programs.

"We see the issue in the shorter term because we are closer to the threat," Prince Saud al-Faisal said when US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Saudi capital in February. "We need immediate resolution rather than gradual resolution."

Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell on Wednesday became the latest international oil giant to announce that it will no longer sell refined gasoline to Iran, even before US-backed sanctions go into effect. Still, reports indicate that Iran has had success buying the refined petroleum products it needs from other sources through front companies in Dubai, Bahrain and other parts of the Gulf. "All you are doing is transferring sales from one company to another," said a trader in Kuwait.

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