New Delhi, June 26 -- specific reassurances about what the fragile US-Iran memorandum of understanding actually means.

But according to CNN, Marco Rubio's assurances, as delivered in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City, and Manama, did not in several respects match what Donald Trump or JD Vance had said at home.

In the week since the 60-day MOU was signed on June 17, three senior members of the same administration have offered three meaningfully different accounts of the same agreement. Gulf allies who absorbed those contradictions before Rubio landed welcomed his visit to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain, but their unease with the deal ran deeper than any three-day tour was going to fix.

The most visible split concerns the proposed $3...