The US will create a system to keep Gulf allies up to date on the progress of its negotiations for a permanent peace deal with Iran, and "engaged as much as possible", Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
"We will not be making any decisions or commitments that in any way undermine the prosperity, stability or security of our Gulf partners," Mr Rubio told reporters after a meeting with Gulf foreign ministers in Bahrain.
"So every step of the way, we'll create a system where we are always in communication with them and they're not reading about it in the media.
"They really should be hearing directly from us and engaged as much as possible in this process as we move forward. And that was something that we talked about today."
The meeting in Bahrain was the culmination of Mr Rubio's three-day trip to the region to reassure allies, days after the US and Iran held their first round of talks under a 14-point framework they signed last week.
The Gulf foreign ministers welcomed the signing of the preliminary agreement in a joint statement issued after the meeting, but also stressed the need to "maintain the momentum and unity of the negotiations in order to achieve a lasting end to hostilities and the shared objective of preventing Iran from developing or acquiring a nuclear weapon in any form".
Ensuring a lasting peace in the region "requires addressing all forms of Iranian threats, including its ballistic missiles, drones and support for proxies in the region", they said.
Curtailing Iran's missile programme and its use of armed proxies to exert influence in the region was among the objectives listed by US President Donald Trump when the US and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28. However, they were not mentioned in the agreement signed by Washington and Tehran last week.
The ministers also stressed the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, saying unconditional and unrestricted freedom of navigation was essential for regional and global security, while rejecting "the imposition of any fees, taxes or attempts to exert control over the strait".
Marine traffic through the strait, effectively blockaded by Iranian attacks on shipping after the war began, has increased since last week but uncertainty remains over its operation.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy on Thursday appeared to reject Oman's opening of a navigation channel for the evacuation of more than 11,000 seafarers stranded by the blockade.
The IRGC navy said vessels could safely transit the Strait of Hormuz only through routes it has announced, according to a statement carried by Tasnim news agency.
A vessel off the coast of Oman was struck by a projectile on Thursday evening, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said. No casualties were reported.
The ship hit was the Singapore-flagged container Ever Lovely, Reuters reported, quoting the British maritime risk management group Vanguard and security sources.
The incident was deemed to be an attack based on initial assessments, British maritime security company Ambrey said.
The UN's International Maritime Organisation said the evacuation effort, which it announced on Wednesday, had been suspended after the attack.
Since the start of Mr Rubio's tour in the UAE on Tuesday, he has repeatedly voiced US opposition to any tolls or charges being imposed in the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. In Bahrain, he also addressed Iran's repeated warnings to ships to follow its directives to ensure safe passage.
"They’re going to have people going on their TV, on their official media and making all kinds of pronouncements. But what we're interested in is not their press conferences. What we're interested in is whether or not ships are moving," he said.
"If ships are moving as they should be moving, then that's what we're going to judge and that's what we're going to react to. If, on the other hand, this rhetoric is backed up by actual ships being threatened and ships are not moving, that's a violation of the agreement. And we're going to have a problem with it."
