Iran

Speaking for the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, Qatar's foreign minister said Monday that the bloc had been pleased by a presentation of the agreement from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. 

On that basis, he said the council welcomed the deal.

Kerry had come to Doha seeking to ease concerns about the regional implications of the deal. 

Kerry arrived in the Qatari capital on Sunday after visiting Egypt, where he also spoke in favor of the agreement reached with Iran last month in Vienna. 

The Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states fear Shiite Iran's increasing assertiveness in the region. In Cairo, Kerry acknowledged Iran's negative role but said it would be easier to deal with if Tehran cannot develop a nuclear weapon.

Adel al-Jubeir spoke Monday after talks with EU's Federica Mogherini who was in the kingdom to assuage its concerns over the nuclear deal she helped broker.

Al-Jubeir says Saudi Arabia rejects Iran's words and actions — a veiled reference to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's statement that the deal won't sway his country's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah group, Syria's government and Shiites in Bahrain and Yemen.

"Let me underscore, the alternative to the deal we've reached isn't what we're seeing ads for on TV," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the first public hearing on the controversial deal to lift economic and other sanctions in exchange for concessions of the Islamic state's nuclear program. 

He was referring commercials aired by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee urging lawmakers to reject the deal.

Carter met with the king as well as his defense minister, Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, Wednesday in the Red Sea city of Jedda.

Carter told reporters afterward that the king expressed reservations about how well Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal can be verified. And he expressed concern about the mechanism for reinstating international economic sanctions in the event that Iran is found to have violated the deal.

They called it a bad deal. He called it a good deal. And they all just called it a day.

Carter on Tuesday did avoid a public tongue-lashing by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli leader has called the Iran deal a monumental mistake and asserted that it severely weakens Israel's security, strengthens Iran and contradicts President Barack Obama's stated goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

This was reported on Monday by the official IRNA news agency.

Hassan Rouhani, who met visiting German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, said he hopes Germany plays a "positive role" in improving relations between Iran and the EU, "as it played a positive role in nuclear talks."

Gabriel is heading a delegation of representatives from German companies, one of the first overt signs of a thaw following a deal with world powers over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

But the measure also provides a mechanism for U.N. sanctions to "snap back" in place if Iran fails to meet its obligations.

The resolution had been agreed to by the five veto-wielding council members, who along with Germany negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran. It was co-sponsored by all 15 members of the Security Council.