Rubio in Middle East tour says any Iran deal will ensure security of Gulf allies

Manama. US 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 trip aimed ‌at selling the Trump administration's preliminary accord to sceptical regional partners.

Speaking at a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers and officials in Bahrain — home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet — Rubio said Washington was seeking an enduring peace with long-time foe Iran that would not undermine the security and prosperity of its allies in the oil-rich region, which fear the accord ​is too soft on Iran after it attacked them in the war.

Iran fought two of the world's most powerful armies - the US and Israel - during the ​conflict and took effective control of the vital Strait of Hormuz, heavily disrupting oil flows and rattling global energy markets ⁠and the wider economy.

"The reality of it is that no country on Earth has the right to charge for the use of international waterways. And that will ​never be an acceptable condition of any deal. The president's been fundamentally clear about that," said Rubio.

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, who chaired the ​gathering, welcomed Oman's announcement of a corridor for the safe passage of vessels through the strait.

Rubio's three-day tour of the Gulf is the first high-level diplomatic mission since the US-Iran framework agreement last week to end the conflict, which started on February 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

He has acknowledged the delicacy of his mission as he seeks to win over ​Gulf Arab leaders wary that excessive concessions could strengthen Tehran and reshape the region’s security balance and oil flows.

At his previous stops in the UAE and ​Kuwait, Rubio sought to assure officials that the proposed deal was not overly favorable to Iran, which struck several Gulf states during the war.

"We're not going to do anything that undermines ‌the security ⁠of our allies, our longstanding allies in the region," he told reporters in Kuwait.

Conflicting accounts on deal terms

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran had agreed to nuclear inspections into "infinity," while Tehran said it had made no such concession in negotiations, raising questions about the viability of their fragile peace deal.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte met President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday,

The two countries, which ended a first round of negotiations in Switzerland on Monday, have also offered conflicting accounts about financial incentives for Iran, control of the Strait of Hormuz, ​and Israel's parallel war in Lebanon.

All six ​Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations - Saudi ⁠Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait - are strategic US allies that offered some degree of logistical support to Washington during the war, and all were buffeted by Iranian airstrikes as a result.

Together, they make up the backbone ​of America's security architecture in the Middle East, and any countries rethinking their security relationship with the U.S. could ​have a significant ⁠impact on US military strategy in the region.

The draft US-Iran agreement includes no limits on Iran's ballistic missiles, a proposed $300 billion reconstruction fund and provisions that could expand Tehran's regional influence and control over critical oil shipping lanes.

Rubio has said he would not be asking regional allies to contribute to any reconstruction fund during the trip, even ⁠as the ​MoU with Iran suggests that countries in the region would at least be partially responsible for ​footing the bill.

Some US Gulf allies are privately feeling disappointed over the interim deal that could open the door to US normalization with Iran, a predominantly Shi'ite country that most Sunni-led GCC states ​consider their main adversary.