The issue of a $300 billion fund to rebuild Iran did not come up in meetings between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gulf ministers in Manama, Gulf Co-operation Council Secretary General Jasem Al Budaiwi has said.
“It was not introduced to me nor to other GCC countries. We don’t know anything about it,” Mr Al Budaiwi told On the Record with Hadley Gamble in an exclusive interview in Bahrain. “We did not discuss it.”
Despite reports suggesting Gulf states are to foot the bill for a key piece of US President Donald Trump’s deal with Tehran, Mr Al Budaiwi said he was unaware of any details. “We really don’t know anything about it,” he added.
The idea of using economic diplomacy as an incentive for good behaviour from Tehran is not new. Mr Al Budaiwi referenced 2024 talks between the GCC and the Iranian government when investment, connectivity and digitalisation were all on the table. Those conversations have not been restarted, he said, but the door has been left open in principle.
“If we have a normal relationship with Iran or any other country, then we are open to investment,” he said.
He made the comments after Mr Rubio’s first visit to the region since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February. The trip to the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain had been framed as an opportunity to both reassure Gulf allies of US support and offer the chance for consultation on the framework for a lasting agreement with Iran.
Asked whether an interim US-Iran deal is good for the GCC, Mr Al Budaiwi said: “What is a good deal for the GCC is a region that’s stable and secure. What is a good deal is a neighbour that refrains from using force and attacking us.
"What is a good deal is [the Strait of] Hormuz would be open as it was before the war. What is a good deal is when we need to, all of us, think, including Iran, about our future, about a dialogue, a serious dialogue where we ensure that there is peace and stability for our children.”
So far Mr Trump’s negotiations with Tehran do not include Gulf countries, yet the Secretary General rejected the notion that Washington left the Gulf in the lurch. “Maybe it’s better to be on the sideline, not to be involved,” Mr Al Budaiwi said. “But we are involved. We are there.
“Mr Rubio was with us in a joint ministerial meeting in Manama on June 25 and we heard assurances that, step by step, he is going to inform the GCC of all the dialogue that is going on. Qatar is in the discussion, so we have access. [Mr Rubio] is on a phone call almost daily or every other day with a minister here and there. So yes, we are involved, we know what’s going on.”
Iranian ballistic missiles, drones and regional proxies have not yet been discussed between Tehran and Washington, but Mr Al Budaiwi was clear that the GCC’s priority remains for the issue of Iran-backed militias to be addressed.
“Proxies are the most important issue here. Iran’s continuous interference in Iraq, Yemen and others, Lebanon, has to be stopped,” he said. “The biggest damage we received in the GCC countries ... came from the militias in Iraq.”
In an exclusive interview this month, Iraq’s new Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi pledged to disarm all militia groups by September 30, when US troops are scheduled to withdraw from the country. Mr Al Zaidi said that he planned to hold his own security forces responsible for any future violence against the Gulf, but claimed Iraqi intelligence found “no evidence” that attacks on Saudi Arabia originated from the country.
Mr Al Budaiwi rejects that claim. “That’s not accurate. There is evidence,” he said. “We provided them with co-ordinates, pictures and so on. No, it is from Iraq, unfortunately.”
He ruled out any form of tolls being applied by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. “It’s not acceptable,” he said. “Even Oman does not agree on the fees. We issued a statement with Mr Rubio during the meeting that has a clear, specific paragraph about not accepting any kind of fees.”
Mr Al Budaiwi’s assessment tracks with current shipping data. About 20 million barrels per day, about a fifth of global oil consumption, transit through the strait.
Iran's disruption of the waterway during the war helped push Brent crude above $90 per barrel and increased diesel margins to $37 per barrel in Europe, Goldman Sachs said. Gulf states have used alternative routes – including Fujairah in the UAE, Duqm in Oman and Saudi Arabia's Yanbu Red Sea port – to export energy, as well as accelerating Gulf rail and electricity links.
On Iran’s nuclear programme, Mr Al Budaiwi said Tehran accepted it would not have a nuclear weapon under the deal with the US, but he stressed that the UN's nuclear watchdog must verify what Iran is doing.
“The [International Atomic Energy Agency] has to play a role in securing the monitoring system,” he said. “Also, the amount of uranium has to be dealt with. Where do you locate it? Where do you store it?”
Asked whether he believes Tehran's nuclear claims, he said: “I want to believe them, yes. I would like to believe them.”
