Rubio tells Gulf allies Iran deal will ensure security
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Gulf allies on Thursday that any deal with Iran would take their interests into account as he wrapped up a Middle East tour aimed at selling the Trump administration’s preliminary deal to skeptical regional partners.
Speaking at a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers and officials in Bahrain, Rubio said Washington was seeking a lasting peace with long-time foe Iran that would not harm the security and prosperity of its allies in the oil-rich region, who fear the deal that attacked them in the war is too soft on Iran.
During the conflict, Iran fought the world’s two most powerful militaries (the United States and Israel) and effectively took control of the vital Strait of Hormuz; This greatly disrupted the flow of oil and shook global energy markets and the wider economy.
“The fact is that no country on Earth has the right to charge fees for the use of international waterways. And that will never be an acceptable condition of any agreement. The president has been fundamentally clear on that,” Rubio said Thursday. he said.
Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, who chaired the meeting, welcomed Oman’s announcement of a corridor for the safe passage of ships through the strait.
Oman said at the meeting that future regulations for the Strait of Hormuz will not include transit fees.
Rubio’s three-day Gulf tour is the first high-level diplomatic mission since the US-Iran framework agreement, which began with the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.
He acknowledged the sensitivity of his mission as he sought to win over Gulf Arab leaders wary that excessive concessions could strengthen Tehran and reshape the region’s security balance and oil flows.
During previous stops in the UAE and Kuwait, Rubio had sought to reassure officials that the proposed deal was not in favor of Iran, which affected many Gulf states during the war.
“We will not do anything that will undermine the security of our allies, our long-standing allies in the region,” he told reporters in Kuwait.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran had agreed to conduct nuclear inspections “in perpetuity”, while Tehran said it had made no such concessions in negotiations, raising questions about the viability of the fragile peace deal.
The draft US-Iran deal includes any limits on Iran’s ballistic missiles, a proposed US$300 billion ($434 billion) reconstruction fund and provisions that could expand Tehran’s regional influence and control over critical oil shipping lines.
Rubio said he would not ask regional allies to contribute to any reconstruction funds during the trip, although the agreement with Iran suggests that countries in the region would be responsible for at least partial fulfillment of the bill.
Some U.S. allies in the Gulf are privately frustrated by the interim agreement that could open the door to U.S. normalization with Shiite-majority Iran, which most Sunni-majority Gulf Cooperation Council countries see as their main enemy.
