The agreement signed between Iran and the United States is definitely one of the common subjects talked these days. Once signed up, were witnessed to various headings explaining the position of the Western countries, but as always, we missed checking the point of view of the Arab countries regarding this issue. If the Western countries ignores the opinions of certain countries in the Middle East, it is hard for me to believe how they will understand the political, social and diplomatic background that are taking place in that region of the world, and what actions will be taken in order to deal with the future results of the last agreement signed between the concerned countries.

During the last few years, the Sunni Arab world expressed confusion at a time they attempt to analyze the controversial foreign policy of the Western countries.

We can see now doubts and anxiety in different academic spheres and columnists opinions from Sunni Arab countries, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Those researchers do not understand what led a powerful western country to be allied with Iran.How can we explain the fact that a country like Iran preaches terrorism are incitement now being ally of the West?. This is clearly illogical and not natural.  This question also exists between some Western countries, but not with the same aim. To understand the Sunni Arab states perspective, we need to focus on the internal conflicts in the Middle East. During the last centuries, there were many conflicts between the various community’s arms of the Islamic religion that fuel violent incidents, clashes and power struggles. The most well-known is the conflict between the Sharia’s and the Sunni’s. In most cases, the Sunni’s overcome prevailed thanks to the close relationship between them and the West. Hence, the agreement between the West and Iran received by surprise.

In the foreseeable future Iran will succeed in strengthening its economic power as an outcome result of lifting of the sanctions, therefore, Iran may have access to funds that were frozen in the past with a new flow of foreign investment amounts to billions of dollars.

Iran’s economic growth could have negative consequences on the Sunni Arab states in the Middle East. Those countries are concerned and the justification comes from the possibility that over a few years Iran will not be a Shri’a minority.

This will be a significant threat to the moderate Sunni countries. We are facing a new era in the Middle East. Western countries should devote a special attention to the Sunni countries opinions in the region. Those point of views may well be an opportunity we could not miss. At the same time if we are smart enough to understand the concerns of the Sunni states about the expanded influence of the Sharia, if we devote more attention to trends occurring in those countries, we could also see certain points and positions that could play to our advantage.

On July 8, 2015, the well-known Egyptian intellectual Ali Salam explained in the Egyptian newspaper   “El-Youm ” Why Egypt can and should strengthen its relationship with Israel without causing  a negative impact on the Egyptian government. Salam Ali starts his article by saying: “The decline of the Arab governments is a result of the Arab Spring revolution, not a bad relationship with Israel or the western world”. Salam also said in addition that there is no danger to Egypt on the Sinai question, for the simple reason that Israel has no interest retaking this area. On the contrary, good relations with Israel can bring a solution to the threat arising of terrorist groups led by ISIS. Back to Iran, we also find an article by Kuwaiti columnist Abdallah Al-Hadlaq, his last article accuses Iran as the real enemy of the Middle East and not Israel which he defines it as friendly country.

Abdallah Al-Hadlaq claims that fascist government exists in Iran, while in Israel although its nuclear power never threatened to use such weapons, even when more than once was threatened by their neighbors. In contrast, Iran may well lead to a nuclear disaster at the appropriate opportunity.

The important question here is why Western countries do not attach adequate importance to these opinions? Is the United States hope that an alliance with Iran may be useful in the future for a possible confrontation with the Islamic State?, We know that this is impossible, just as the possibility of a Sunni Arab country union to fight Iran .

In my humble opinion, for and other reasons enumerated in this article, we must not underestimate the opinions of the Sunni countries regarding nuclear agreement. It would be a big mistake if we set aside the opinions of these countries, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia which are considered moderate countries in the Middle East, particularly in their contributions to Western countries.

Published Nov 15, 2015