US official vows to ‘confront’ Iran ‘aggressively’ regardless of possible deal

A State Department official says the United States will “confront aggressively” Iran’s bid to expand its influence across the Middle East even if a nuclear deal is reached.

“Regardless of what happens in the nuclear file, we will continue to confront aggressively Iranian expansion in the region and Iranian aggressiveness in the region,” the official says.

“You can’t read into the nuclear negotiation any kind of determination of where the US relationship with Iran may go in the future,” the senior State Department official tells reporters.

He says Washington was working closely with its majority-Sunni Muslim Gulf allies to help build up their security and capabilities to defend their interests.

“Obviously the Gulf states are watching the negotiations very carefully; they have a legitimate reason to want to understand better what it is we’re trying to achieve.”

But he stresses: “This is not going to change any of the other aspects of our approach to Iran.”

— AFP