Iran fears alliance of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Middle East expert says

ISTANBUL

Canadian Middle Eastern expert Dr. Peter Jones from the Ottawa University said one of the gretaest fears in Tehran was the idea that Turkey, Egypy and Saudi Arabia will have some kind of alliance with common interests to counter Iran in the region.

“This is how it is seen from Tehran and the starting point of this fearis the issue of Syria”, Jones told to Hürriyet Daily News in an interview on 8 November.

Jones gave a conference at the Global Political Trends Center of the Kültür University in Istanbul on 8 November.

Jones has also said Iran is dissapointed with the consequences of the Arab spring.

“Iran has been waiting since 1979 for countries of the Muslim world to follow the path of the Iranian revolution. At the beginning of the revolutions of the Arab Spring, there was a feeling in Iran that this was actually happening. However what we have seen in the last 20 months was the region was not following Iran’s path and Iran is loosing its influence in the region”, Jones said.

Jones said people of the Arab spring countries didn’t see Iran as a role model to follow and Iran’s influence as a soft power has also declined.

“Iranians hoped the influence of the US will decline in the region. This is really happening now, but also Iran’s position has diminished in the region”, Jones said.

Jones also said following US President Barack Obama’s selection for the second term in teh White House, there will probably be a significant diplomatic effort to solve the Iranian nuclear problem in 2013.

“My expectation is after all the sanctions and economic failure, Iran will also approach to the negotiations in a more pragmatic way”, Jones said.