GCC members welcome US-Iran interim truce

A ministerial meeting between the United States and Gulf nations held in Bahrain on Thursday welcomed the interim Iran-US deal to end hostilities, while emphasizing that any tolls or control over the Strait of Hormuz is unacceptable.

A joint communique was issued following the US-Gulf Cooperation Council high-level gathering. The meeting in Manama, Bahrain's capital, was chaired by Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, the country's foreign minister and current chief of the GCC's ministerial council, with the participation of visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the GCC member states.

According to the statement published by Bahrain News Agency, the ministers recognized the important mediation roles played by Pakistan and Qatar as they welcomed the June 17 memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran.

They stressed the need to maintain momentum and unity as negotiations proceed toward a more permanent end to hostilities and the shared objective of preventing Iran from ever developing or otherwise acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The ministers further emphasized that lasting regional peace and security requires "addressing the full spectrum of Iranian threats … and (its) support of proxies in the region".

They underscored the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and rejected tolls or attempts to assert control over the critical waterway.

The ministers further emphasized that any trade and investment with Iran "is conditional and reversible", contingent on Iran's compliance with the MoU and the final deal, as well as the creation of the conditions necessary for economic engagement.

They welcomed the development of a practical approach that allows for the restoration of security and Lebanese state authority and the demarcation of permanent boundaries.

In a separate statement, GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi insisted that any future arrangements must include the GCC states — Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait — to ensure their security and stability.

Gokhan Ereli, an assistant professor at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul, told China Daily that Albudaiwi's statement reads as "careful agenda insertion".

Ereli said the insistence that future understandings must incorporate the requirements of the GCC countries "is less a request than a hedge against abandonment, an effort to convert proximity into leverage before terms harden".

Strong condemnation

Iran's foreign ministry strongly condemned the US-GCC communique as "interfering, irresponsible and provocative", according to a statement cited by Mehr News Agency.

The ministry dismissed Washington's claim of a "sustained commitment to the security of GCC states" as "nothing more than rhetoric and distortion of reality", arguing that the US military presence in the region has instead become "a burden on the peoples of the region and a source of insecurity and division".

Iran urged the regional states to reconsider their positions, while reiterating the "clear obligation" of GCC members under international law and the principle of good-neighborliness to prevent any third party from using their territory or facilities for unlawful actions, including military aggression against Iran.

The ministry, meanwhile, expressed "disgust" at the repetition of a "big lie fabricated by the genocidal Zionist regime and the United States" regarding Iran's peaceful nuclear program, and told the GCC states to avoid aligning with Washington's "threat narrative".

It instead asked them to join Tehran in advancing the initiative for "a West Asia free of nuclear weapons", while compelling the US to stop obstructing it.

Tehran also rejected accusations of "threats emanating from Iran" as a politically motivated construct designed to impose US narratives on regional governments.

Contact the writers at jan@chinadailyapac.com