UAE adviser says Gulf hopes for US-Iran diplomatic breakthrough

The United Arab Emirates is hoping for a diplomatic breakthrough in negotiations between Iran and the United States while being prepared for the worst, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said on Sunday at a conference in Manama, Bahrain.

"We're hoping that there is a diplomatic breakthrough," Gargash said. "It is not the interest of the region to go through another round ... But I think we're also, as we've shown before, braced for the worst."

His remarks followed threats of a resumption of the Middle East war. US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States still has to "take care of" one or two targets in Iran. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Trump had not made a decision about fresh strikes on Iran and that the US would be open to a diplomatic solution.

At the same Manama conference, US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Donald Blome said: "We just can't allow Iran to take this region and the global economy hostage." Blome said the hand of negotiation had been extended and those channels had continued to be open and active, adding that the US had also been prepared to go in another direction.

Iran has dispatched envoys to Qatar to continue consultations as part of indirect negotiations with the US to end the war, following a visit to Tehran by a Qatari delegation. The war began on February 28 with joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which retaliated by targeting, among others, Gulf countries allied with Washington.