Prince Bandar. Photo: Wikipedia.

The nuclear deal with Iran will have worse consequences than the failed agreement with North Korea, warned Saudi Prince and former ambassador to the U.S. Bandar bin Sultan on Thursday.

President Barack Obama accepted what he knew was a bad deal because, ideologically, he felt like it was the right thing to do, according to Bandar. The U.S. president ignored the intelligence and counsel of traditional American allies in the Mideast, like Israel, which said the Iran deal would invite terrorism throughout the region, or worse, spark an all-out war.

Former President Bill Clinton never would have signed the North Korea nuclear agreement if he had had the kind of evidence Obama has now against Iran, Bandar said.

If the Iran deal collapses and the country goes for the bomb, he said, the consequences could be much worse than North Korea.

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor reported that Saudi Arabia would intensify efforts to confront Iran through its proxies and allies in Yemen and Syria before the country gets windfall cash from lifted sanctions.

According to military officials cited in the report, the Saudis are weighing a ground campaign in Yemen followed by a shift in attention to Sunni-led airstrikes in Syria to provide air cover for the Free Syrian Army as it battles Iranian-backed Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose forces have been bolstered by Lebanese Hezbollah.