Rubio insists strait of Hormuz will be toll-free as he arrives for Gulf meeting

Marco Rubio, who attended the G7 summit last week, is to visit the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain, the US state department said. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP View image in fullscreen Marco Rubio, who attended the G7 summit last week, is to visit the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain, the US state department said. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Rubio insists strait of Hormuz will be toll-free as he arrives for Gulf meeting US secretary of state seeks to reassure UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain over security and US-Iran ceasefire deal Middle East crisis live – latest updates The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio , has said no country, including Iran, would be allowed to charge tolls for shipping in the strait of Hormuz as he sought to reassure US allies in the Gulf that Washington would take a firm line in peace negotiations with Tehran. Rubio is to meet Gulf allies on Tuesday and Wednesday in an attempt to reassure them that the US remains committed to their security and the 60-day ceasefire deal struck with Iran last week will not embolden Tehran. Arriving in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Rubio said the US would provide for freedom of navigation through the strait of Hormuz and that no country would be allowed to charge a toll there, which Iran has said it has a right to do. “It’s an international waterway,” Rubio said. “No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law. That’s the way it is in international waterways all over the world, and that’s the way we expect it’ll be here.” That was just one of a number of potential fault lines in the shaky new US ceasefire deal, as concerns have grown that the release of Iran’s frozen assets would be reinvested into its military. And while Donald Trump claimed on Monday that Iran had agreed to allow international inspectors back into the country to monitor its nuclear programme, Iran directly denied that an agreement had been struck. Rubio also nodded to the potential spoiler role that Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon could play in the agreement, saying that Iranian proxies must also respect the ceasefire but that the issue would be addressed “at the appropriate time in these negotiations”. The US last week signed a ceasefire agreement with Iran that established a 60-day period of toll-free passage through the strait, after which Iran and Oman would discuss the “future administration and maritime services in the strait of Hormuz, in discussions with other Persian Gulf littoral states, in line with applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the strait of Hormuz”. Observers took that to mean that Iran was not directly precluded from charging fees or services for transport through the strait of Hormuz. Rubio, however, indicated that he believed Iran would accept the terms of toll-free passage through the waterway. “I don’t think we have anybody to convince around here in that regard,” he said on Monday. “I think all the