Defense Secretary Mark Esper remarked that “so many of the countries in the region recognise that the biggest concern they have, we have too, is Iran and its maligned behaviour through that region… The vision would be to have some type of security construct out there, where countries on the peninsula, Israel and others, are working together to deter conflict with Iran”. He also noted that “all of those countries have an interest, certainly have concerns – freedom of navigation through the Persian Gulf, freedom of commerce, threats to the sovereignty of the countries… countries are recognizing that reality and they’re seeing the other possible benefits, as well, of normalisation”.