Special to WorldTribune.com

Arabs will continue to turn away from the United States after a nuclear deal with Iran that will “wreak havoc in the region,” Saudi Arabia’s former head of intelligence said.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, writing in Lebanon’s Daily Star on July 16, said the deal between Iran and Western powers will allow Teheran to obtain a nuclear bomb and “it will wreak havoc in the Middle East which is already living in a disastrous environment, whereby Iran is a major player in the destabilization of the region.”

Bandar said the deal will also further erode Arab trust in the United States.

“People in my region now are relying on God’s will and consolidating their local capabilities and analysis with everybody else except our oldest and most powerful ally,” Bandar wrote.

The Saudis released a short public statement on July 14 that said it backed any agreement that would stop Iran from getting the bomb.

Privately, however, officials and Saudi media close to the ruling family have been highly critical of the deal, saying it is likely to embolden Teheran to give more support to regional militias.

“The strategic foreign policy analysis, the national intelligence information, and America’s allies in the region’s intelligence all predict not only the same outcome of the North Korean nuclear deal but worse,” Bandar wrote, referring to Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Bandar, who in 2013 criticized U.S. President Barack Obama’s Middle East strategy, was replaced as intelligence chief in 2014.

A nephew of King Salman, it is not known if Bandar continues to play any role in Saudi policy making.

  Ex-Saudi spy chief: Nuke deal will ‘wreak havoc’; Arabs lose faith in ‘oldest and most powerful ally’, King Salman, North Korea nukes, Prince Bandar, WorldTribune.com