Iran Nuclear Deal Criticism: Former Saudi Ambassador To US, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Condemns Obama

The former Saudi ambassador to the United States wrote a scathing commentary about the nuclear deal between Tehran and Washington this week. Prince Bandar bin Sultan said the nuclear deal drew comparisons to the failed 2005 denuclearization deal that was made with North Korea, except with even more unwelcome consequences.

“Critics say in the media and in politics that the nuclear deal held by President Barack Obama with Iran is a replica of the nuclear deal held by former President Bill Clinton with North Korea,” Bandar wrote in an editorial in the London-based Arabic news site Elaph Journal, which was translated into English by Lebanon's Daily Star. “But I humbly do not agree with this view,” he added, explaining that the intentions behind the North Korea deal were very differently motivated than the one negotiated this week with Iran.

Bandar argued that “President Clinton made his decision on the basis of U.S. foreign policy and strategic analysis” and “the desire and good intentions to save the people of North Korea from famine,” but failed as the result of bad intelligence. President Obama, Bandar said, has gone through with the deal, even though intelligence suggested that the result would be much worse than the North Korea deal.

He added: "It will wreak havoc in the Middle East which is already living in instability whereby Iran is a major player."

The criticism leveled by Bandar was not the first from a politician, many of whom have highlighted what they saw as a path toward further nuclearization.

“Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. “One cannot prevent an agreement when negotiators are willing to make more and more concessions to those who, even during the talks, keep chanting: ‘Death to America.’ ”