By Gram Slattery
ABU DHABI, June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks with top United Arab Emirates officials on Wednesday on a Middle East tour, seeking to reassure Gulf allies who view a proposed Iran peace deal as too soft on a state that attacked them in the war.
The U.S.-Iran accord reached last week — the first signed by an American and an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution — includes a proposed $300 billion fund and the waiver of some sanctions.
Arriving in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi late on Tuesday for a three-day tour of the oil-rich Gulf, Rubio is undertaking his first high-level diplomatic mission on the agreement to end the four-month U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Rubio held a working lunch with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and other senior figures, including National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
RUBIO TO ADDRESS REGIONAL CONCERNS
Asked on arrival if he planned to address allies' disquiet with the accord, Rubio told reporters: "That most certainly will come up in these discussions." He said they would also discuss issues not covered by the memorandum of understanding.
America's top diplomat has been largely absent from Iran-related discussions in recent weeks, with Vice President JD Vance instead leading a round of talks with Iranian counterparts over the weekend in Switzerland.
As well as the United Arab Emirates, Rubio is also visiting Kuwait. Both nations host strategic U.S. military bases, and both were hit by an onslaught of Iranian missiles, resulting in civilian deaths.
The UAE faces particularly severe economic strains, as the war caused some expatriates at the core of its non-oil economy to flee the global financial centre which prides itself on stability in a volatile Middle East.
Last week, Reuters reported that Iran set up secretive new cells in Iraq to carry out attacks on Gulf countries, including Kuwait and the UAE. Those cells carried out at least seven drone attacks against sites in Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia during a roughly one-month period in April and May.
Rubio's remarks during his swing through the region will be closely scrutinized to see how the man once known as a hawkish critic of Iran frames a deal that many congressional Republicans argue amounts to capitulation.
Rubio and Vance, both former U.S. senators, are widely viewed within Republican Party circles as potential candidates to succeed Trump, with party insiders and early polling often casting the race as a two-way contest between them.
IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Rubio's mission is delicate: While he needs to defend a preliminary accord that Trump firmly supports, he also has to credibly address the concerns of his Gulf counterparts, who are more circumspect about the deal.
The two sides signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding last week setting out broad agreements in principle to end the war. The interim accord paved the way for 60 days of talks aimed at hammering out thornier details, including issues related to Iran's nuclear program.
Iran will address matters related to access to nuclear sites that have been attacked and to Iranian nuclear materials only in the framework of a final agreement with the United States and after practical steps are taken to lift U.S. sanctions, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Wednesday.
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said earlier on Wednesday that he expected inspections in Iran soon under an interim understanding linked to the U.S.-Iran talks, although details were yet to be finalised.
A central issue in talks is what will happen to Iran's highly enriched uranium, including material enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons grade. Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
While Gulf leaders pushed for peace during the four-month-long conflict, many were surprised and disappointed by the terms of the accord.
U.S. regional allies are especially concerned that Iran could use the proposed $300 billion reconstruction fund to rebuild its military. The accord also does not address Tehran's ballistic missile capacity, a concern for Gulf states, all of which were struck by Iranian missiles and drones in the war.
Tehran has noted that the Gulf states made various logistical accommodations for Washington's war effort, while hosting U.S. military bases that were central to the conflict.
(Additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna; Writing by Gram Slattery and Michael Georgy; Editing by Don Durfee, Howard Goller, Sharon Singleton and Alison Williams)
