Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made some fresh Thursday remarks in Manama, Bahrain after his meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers. “We had a very productive meeting,” he acknowledged.

The US top diplomat emphasized that “zero support” from Gulf countries for tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, in contradiction to Iran’s official stance (and possibly in coordination with Oman, which has provoked US wrath).

Pool/file image

Oman has remained ambiguous on the issue in its latest statements, no doubt not wishing to not further inflame Washington sentiment against the longtime southern Arab Gulf ally.

Oman, via its state news agency, has reaffirmed that it is ready to help restore maritime security and that it backs the MoU signed between the US and Tehran, also in accord with decisions made at the high-level Vance meeting in Switzerland at the start of the week.

Rubio’s main argument seemed to be the very bad precedent that a toll system extracted by Iran (and the IRGC) would set, warning that Iranian tolls on ships through Hormuz would only spread to other waterways, risking “total chaos”.

“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,” he said at the GCC meeting. He added: 

“If in fact we accepted that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well then this will spread throughout the world like a contagion.”

He stressed the the Trump administration is committed to a peace deal, but not “at any price”. He explained: “While we want a deal, we don’t want a deal at any price. We want a deal that’s good, we want a deal that’s real, we want a deal that’s verifiable, and we want a deal that’s adhered to.”

“We want to ensure… 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,” he said.

🇺🇸 — VID: Marco Rubio today in Bahrain on Iran:

“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… pic.twitter.com/k4xo4hY2TY

— Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) June 25, 2026

Rubio’s Gulf tour has included the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain, where he’s given assurances that any broader US-Iran peace deal would not abandon Gulf allies’ interests.

Another notable statement from Rubio is his statement that a reconstruction fund for Iran was not discussed with Gulf countries. But this also remains high at the top of Tehran’s wish list.

As for the latest from Iran, the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned against any crossings of the Strait of Hormuz without authorization, threatening that ships not complying “will be dealt with” as it criticized a new route through the waterway established under the auspices of Gulf countries and with UN coordination.

Rubio calling Iranian leadership, ‘religious theocratic lunatic’ – while his boss is begging for a negotiated solution, these sorts of lunacy counterproductive. pic.twitter.com/8BVV2mjiVr

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) June 25, 2026

“The only authorized route for passage through the Strait of Hormuz is the route announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the IRGC said Thursday.

So clearly despite the MoU framework still holding and producing a temporary peace, which has even seen more ships flowing through the waterway, major contradictory issues remain.

According to new video of communications on Marine VHF channel 16 (the international hailing/calling channel for ships) from @_MartinKelly_, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Navy (IRGC-N), also known as the ‘Sepah Navy’ has announced:

“Transiting the Strait of Hormuz is… pic.twitter.com/anngHDTDeo

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 25, 2026

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Some more of the latest via Al Jazeera:

The US will not accept that Hormuz belongs to any nation state, Rubio said while meeting with Bahraini leaders in Manama. He also said that the US wants a deal that doesn’t undermine security and prosperity for itself nor its allies.
Bahrain’s ⁠Foreign ⁠Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al ⁠Zayani welcomed Oman’s announcement of a corridor for the ‌safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, as ⁠he chaired a GCC ⁠meeting during Rubio’s visit to the ‌country.
A Lebanese military source told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces remain deployed in all the areas they recently occupied, making the statement after the Reuters news agency cited a US State Department official stating that Israel had withdrawn from parts of the area.
There were reports of a drone strike in the front-line village of Kfar Tibnit on the outskirts of the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, according to our correspondents on the ground.
Some ⁠57 ⁠ships carrying an estimated 1,100 seafarers have transited ⁠the Strait of Hormuz since June 23 ⁠under a UN evacuation plan launched this week, data from the ‌UN’s shipping agency showed.