Likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is pledging stronger US support during her tenure for Mideast Gulf oil producing countries in their confrontation with Iran. The draft party platform, released before Clinton’s formal nomination as the Democrats’ presidential candidate, promises to address “the detrimental role that Iran plays in the region”, including new sanctions, if necessary. Clinton and her top advisers see Iran benefiting as a result of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, at the expense of US allies in the Gulf. The draft platform calls for bolstering the capabilities of Washington’s Gulf partners and countering Iran’s ballistic missile programme. Proxy conflicts between Shiite Iran and its Sunni neighbours are helping to fuel instability in the Middle East, Clinton’s top foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, says. Sullivan, a senior State Department and White House official in 2009-13, says “a rebalance is needed to set the table for a more effective US strategy in the Middle East”.
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