{"id":19226,"date":"2013-12-07T12:18:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-07T19:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=19226"},"modified":"2013-12-07T12:18:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T19:18:32","slug":"uk-secretary-hauge-gives-false-assurances-to-desperate-failing-gulf-monarchies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=19226","title":{"rendered":"UK Secretary Hauge gives false assurances to desperate failing Gulf Monarchies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>UK foreign secretary seeks to reassure Gulf allies<\/strong><br \/>\nBy ADAM SCHRECK &#8211; 6 December, 2013 &#8211; The Bellingham Herald<\/p>\n<p>MANAMA, Bahrain \u2014 Britain&#8217;s top diplomat voiced his country&#8217;s strong commitment to the security of the Gulf states on Friday, seeking to reassure wary Arab allies in the wake of last month&#8217;s nuclear deal with their regional rival Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign Secretary William Hague told representatives at a regional security summit in the Bahraini capital Manama that last month&#8217;s deal between world powers and Iran in Geneva does not imply any lessening of the U.K.&#8217;s commitments to its alliances in the region.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The U.K. and other Western countries must retain and also strengthen our commitment to stability in the Gulf,&#8221; Hague said, adding that Britain is extending &#8220;deliberately and for the long-term&#8221; its defense and security cooperation with the region.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will remain solidly committed to intensifying and building up these links based on common interest and the deepest possible mutual understanding,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Iran agreed to freeze parts of its nuclear program for six months in exchange for some relief from Western sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>The Gulf states generally welcomed the deal, and Iran&#8217;s foreign minister this week paid visits to four of them \u2014 Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates \u2014 in an early indication of the warming ties.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, Gulf leaders remain suspicious of Iran&#8217;s broader intentions and fear that better relations with the West could embolden Tehran, destabilizing the region. Heavyweight Saudi Arabia in particular sees Iran as a threat to its own influence, and it and other Sunni-ruled Gulf nations are important backers of the Syrian rebels fighting to topple the Iran-allied government of Bashar Assad in Syria.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bellinghamherald.com\/2013\/12\/06\/3358357\/uk-foreign-secretary-seeks-to.html\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;more<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D19226&amp;text=UK+Secretary+Hauge+gives+false+assurances+to+desperate+failing+Gulf+Monarchies&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK foreign secretary seeks to reassure Gulf allies By ADAM SCHRECK &#8211; 6 December, 2013 &#8211; The Bellingham Herald MANAMA, Bahrain \u2014 Britain&#8217;s top diplomat voiced his country&#8217;s strong commitment to the security of the Gulf states on Friday, seeking to reassure wary Arab allies in the wake of last month&#8217;s nuclear deal with their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=19226#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[708],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19227,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19226\/revisions\/19227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}