The Obama administration is continuing efforts to sell the Iran nuclear agreement to skeptical allies, as diplomats move ahead with preparations to ratify the deal in the U.N. Security Council.

President Barack Obama will meet Friday at the White House with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, whose government has expressed alarm about the deal with regional rival Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Thursday with Jubeir, who did not explicitly endorse or reject the Iran nuclear accord.

The top Saudi diplomat echoed his government’s concerns Iran will use money freed up by sanctions relief to continue funding militant groups in countries such as Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

‘Adventures in the region’

“We hope that the Iranians…will use this deal in order to improve the economic situation in Iran and to improve the lot of the Iranian people, and not use it for adventures in the region,” Jubeir said.

“If Iran should try to cause mischief in the region, we are committed to confront it resolutely,” he added.

Kerry said he was confident of continued U.S.-Saudi cooperation and vowed Washington will help “push back against any extremist enterprises, including the activities of Iran in the region.”

The historic nuclear deal, reached earlier this week between Iran and six world powers, is expected to be approved early Monday by the U.N. Security Council in Vienna, according to diplomats.

The resolution will begin the process of lifting international sanctions imposed on Iran, with Tehran giving up its nuclear program in exchange.

Israeli concerns

In Jerusalem, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond sparred publicly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the deal before heading into private talks.

Netanyahu said the Jewish state would have preferred that Tehran change its behavior first before economic sanctions levied against it by the United Nations and the West were eased.

He called it “perplexing” that the pact does not address Tehran’s call to annihilate Israel.

Hammond said he understood Netanyahu’s concerns about the deal, acknowledging that Iran’s “regional conduct” will “have to be dealt with in the months and years to come” and that the West is “not naive about this.”   

The British diplomat, who helped negotiate the pact, said the six world powers that reached accord with Iran “would not have agreed to the deal unless we were sure we had robust measures in place to deliver effective oversight of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Netanyahu has called the deal a “historic mistake” and is seeking to defeat its legislative approval in Washington.

Obama defends deal

 

President Obama made a vigorous defense of the deal Wednesday at a White House news conference that was carried on live television through much of the world, although not in Iran.

 

Obama contended that the deal is the best way to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon, rejecting attacks on it from Republican opponents in Congress and Republican presidential candidates seeking to succeed him when his White House tenure ends in early 2017.

“If 99 percent of the world community and the majority of nuclear experts look at this thing and they say this will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, and you are arguing either that it does not or that even if it does, it’s temporary … then you should have some alternative,” the president said.  

Vice President Joe Biden, who on Wednesday met privately with Democrats from the House of Representatives, returned Thursday to Capitol Hill to hold similar talks with Democrats on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.

Obama has said he will veto any congressional rejection of the plan during the 60-day review period that lawmakers will have.  If that occurs, the House and Senate would both need a two-thirds majority to override the veto.

Cindy Saine contributed to this report from Capitol Hill.

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