ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal and explores the policies of Iranian Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani, noting how the former isolated Iran and the latter brought the country out of isolation. The prospect of a nuclear deal that would free Iran from international sanctions worried Saudi Arabia. Israel and Saudi Arabia had both endured a difficult relationship with Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In addition to committing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to Syria, Tehran asked Hezbollah and Shia militia in Iraq to mobilize in defence of Assad, too. In 2002, evidence emerged that Iran was developing a clandestine nuclear programme. The United States has explicitly committed itself to protecting member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In 2009, GCC leaders praised international efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis through diplomatic means.
