Secretary of State Marco Rubio And Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani At a Meeting With the Gulf Cooperation Council Member States

FOREIGN MINISTER AL ZAYANI:  (In Arabic.)  Your Excellency Secretary Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States of America; Your Highness; Your Excellencies, ministers of foreign affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council states; Your Excellency the Secretary General of the GCC; distinguished guests, (in Arabic).  On behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, it is my pleasure to welcome His Excellency Secretary Rubio to the Kingdom of Bahrain, and I start by conveying the greetings of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, king of Bahrain, and of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, crown prince and prime minister, along with their wishes for a successful meeting.

Secretary Rubio, this is a critical time for the region.  The attacks against our countries tested us in ways we had hoped never to face, yet they also revealed the strength of and resilience of our societies and the effectiveness of our institutions and defense forces in protecting lives and preserving stability.  While physical damage can be repaired, the impact extended beyond infrastructure.  Our citizens endured uncertainty and disruption of the peace and security that define our region.  These experiences have only strengthened our resolve to ensure that such attacks are never normalized and to work with our partners to reinforce the foundations of enduring peace, security, and stability for future generations.

It is in that spirit that we come to today’s meeting.  After the grave challenges we faced, today we see a glimmer of hope for our region, and welcome diplomatic efforts resulting in an end to hostilities with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, supported by the mediation of Pakistan and Qatar, and the restoration of free and secure navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.  In this regard, we welcome the announcement by Oman of a temporary maritime corridor for vessels wishing to transit through the strait.

While this progress is encouraging, it is critically important that Iran fully adheres to its obligations, including under the MOU.  Alongside preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and preserving freedom of navigation, lasting regional security requires a definitive end to missile and drone attacks, ceasing support for militias, and halting interference in the sovereignty of our states.  It is equally important to ensure that the consequences of those attacks are addressed consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2817.

Mr. Secretary, Your Highness, excellencies, the Kingdom of Bahrain values the depth of its partnership with the United States embedded in the Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement, C-SIPA, as a framework for cooperation and security, the economy, and technology, and we propose expanding the horizons of this partnership to serve stability and energy security of our region.  As we advance our partnership, we reaffirm a core GCC principle: Our security is indivisible and a threat to one GCC state is a threat to all.  This principle, enshrined in our Joint Defense Agreement, remains the cornerstone of our cooperation with partners, foremost among them the United States.

Our agenda today also addresses key regional priorities, including the unity, sovereignty, and stability of both Syria and Lebanon, and advancing peace in Gaza through the Board of Peace in support of a just and comprehensive peace.  Dear colleagues, in advancing their strategic choice of peace and good neighborliness, the GCC states look toward a new chapter for our region founded on respect for sovereignty, international law, and the protection of international waterways in partnership with the United States to advance peace, security, and prosperity for all peoples of the region.

Secretary Rubio, I welcome you once again, and I look forward to our discussions on how together we can build a more secure, stable, and prosperous future for our region.  Thank you.  I now invite His Excellency, the Honorable Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States of America, to deliver his opening remarks.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, thank you.  First of all, thank you for hosting me.  Thank you for hosting this gathering.  It’s an important one.  It’s an important gathering of partners, allies, and friends whose friendship and alliance and cooperation among one another has been longstanding. As I look around the room, I see countries we’ve worked with very closely now for decades on a variety of issues, but all driven towards a common purpose, and that is the stability, the security, and the prosperity not just of the region but also of the United States and ultimately of other countries around the world.

This alliance was put to the test based on recent events, and it has passed, meaning that the level of cooperation, the level of interaction, the level of friendship that existed among us during these trying times was put to the test and it passed with flying colors.  I have undertaken this trip here today first and foremost to express my gratitude and appreciation for all of the cooperation and all of the help that we were given and all the things we were able to do together.

We now enter a new phase and one that we hope will lead to peace.  It’s what we all desire.  It’s what we all desire is for this region to be a place where people are focused on making money, not bombs, not weapons; where they’re focused on improving the economic lives of their people, not on how to attack other countries.  This is what we want for the region.  Frankly, this is what we want for the world.  But we understand there are challenges to that.

In that vein and in that context, the United States, with the help of some gathered around this table here today, are going to pursue the opportunity to enter into constructive dialogue and hopefully agreements with Iran, and we hope it leads to a very positive outcome.  That is our hope.  That is what we are open to.  That’s what we are prepared, particularly if Iran makes the decision that instead of being a revolutionary movement that seeks to export its ideology to other countries, they’re now interested in being a nation-state that focuses on the well-being of their own people.  If this is what they want for their future, the United States is prepared, alongside with all of you, to work to make that possible despite our differences from the past.  If they choose a different route, then, of course, this will not lead to a positive outcome, but let’s be hopeful that it does but also realistic.

In that context, it’s important to point to a couple things that are a priority to us, for while we want a deal, we don’t want a deal at any price.  We want a deal that’s good.  We want that’s real. We want a deal that’s verifiable and we want a deal that’s adhered to, and it is important that any agreements that are reached both in the process of negotiation and in the aftermath be adhered to and followed.  But there are certain things that for us are important to point out now that will never be acceptable.

The first is the Straits of Hormuz are international waters.  International waterways do not belong to any nation-state.  This is a foundational principle in the world today without which the world would be in total chaos.  If in fact we accept it, that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well, then this would spread throughout the world like a contagion.  If in fact there is now a straits that one country can or two countries can or any countries decide they want to charge money for its use, what is going to stop every country in the world near a waterway from imposing the same?  And then we’re going to have chaos.

So that is unacceptable.  You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee – whatever you want to call it, it’s a game of semantics.  The reality of it is that no country on Earth has a 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.

The second is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which is at the core purpose of why this all started in the first place.  And so any deal that we enter into has to be one that guarantees that that’s not the case and that puts in place verifiable steps that can be taken.

With these two things in mind, I just want to be clear, the United States remain open and we want this to work and we’re prepared for it to work and we’re going to do everything we can. And we’re hopeful that it will work, and it will require the help and cooperation of every country represented here today to make sure that not only if a deal happens that it’s a good one, but also that it is adhered to.  And the message that I come with is that we want to ensure that any decisions that are made throughout this negotiating process, the interests of our partners and our allies in the region are always taken into account – that there is no part of this deal that’s undertaken that in any way undermines the security, the stability, or the prosperity of any of our partners in the Gulf region.

And that is at the core of my visit here today, is to thank you for all the help you’ve given us, thank you for your friendship, thank you for your cooperation, thank you for this alliance – not just in the defense realm but also in the economic realm – but also to reassure everyone publicly that the United States, while committed to this process, wants to make – will make sure that none of the agreements that are made, none of the things that are agreed to will in any way be counter to the interest of any of the nations represented here today, because you are our partners and our allies and we want that to continue.  And partners and allies don’t undermine one another.

And so thank you for the opportunity to have this forum.  I think we will have some very – you touched on a bunch of other topics that I’m sure we’ll discuss as well: the progress in Syria; the talks between the Lebanese and Israeli Governments that are ongoing even today in Washington, which we hope will reach some positive outcomes.  There are many other things we can talk about in the economic realm as well, but I appreciate very much you extending me this opportunity to meet with all of you collectively and express the President of the United States commitment to all of you that we are open for peace but a peace that is enduring, that is real, and that in no way undermines our security, our prosperity, or the security or prosperity of our friends and allies in the Gulf region.  Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER AL ZAYANI: I thank His Excellency the Secretary of State for his thoughtful remarks.  We greatly value the longstanding partnership between our countries and the close coordination that has characterized our cooperation across a wide range of areas.  This partnership remains indispensable to building a more secure, stable, and prosperous future for our region.

I now declare that the opening session of our meeting has concluded and kindly request members of the press to withdraw from the hall so that we may proceed with the closed session.