U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Gulf allies are backing President Donald Trump’s blockade and economic pressure campaign against Iran, telling Fox News Digital after a trip to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom that regional leaders believe Tehran is feeling the pain.

Waltz spoke to Fox News Digital on Thursday evening shortly after landing back in the United States, as reports of a possible deal with Iran began to emerge. He said the situation was still shifting by the hour, noting that Iran had launched another strike on Bahrain shortly after he left the region.

Waltz, the highest-level U.S. official to visit the region since the war began, said Gulf partners strongly support the administration’s efforts to keep pressure on Iran through both the blockade and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s “Operation Economic Fury.”

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“They very much support the blockade,” Waltz said, adding that allies shared with him “in a number of ways” how Bessent’s economic campaign is affecting the regime. The pressure campaign, Waltz said, is designed to squeeze Tehran while Trump continues negotiations aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

On Friday, an unnamed U.S. official told reporters in a briefing: “We do expect to be signing this agreement with Iran over the next few days. We assess it at 85%, but not 100%. We feel very good about the deal. We are not quite at the finish line, but we are very close”

Waltz said, “The UAE, in particular, believes that you have to keep that pressure and a very credible pressure,” he told Fox News Digital. “That’s what the Iranians understand and respond to.”

Waltz said leaders in the region validated U.S. assessments that Iran’s economy is deteriorating under the combined weight of sanctions, military pressure and isolation. He said Iran’s currency is “tanking,” foreign currency reserves are running out, inflation is continuing to rise and the regime is struggling to pay the military, government employees and police.

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“I think the regime is going to be increasingly desperate,” Waltz said, adding that Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would use that pressure “to their advantage.”

In the UAE, Waltz met with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and the foreign minister, describing the Emiratis as among the most active regional partners against Iran. “There is zero daylight,” Waltz said.

Waltz added the UAE has “both the capability and the will” to act, and said the Emiratis are prepared to take “short-term pain” to achieve the longer-term goal of blocking Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The UAE has been hit hard during the war. Waltz said the country had taken “by far the most missiles, the most drones, the most hits,” but had moved quickly to repair damage and restore operations. 

Waltz also pointed to the Abraham Accords as a major factor in the UAE’s posture, saying the country’s growing partnership with Israel has become an “important shift” in the regional alignment against Iran.

Bahrain was another central stop on Waltz’s trip. The country hosts the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet and has been directly exposed to Iran’s attacks and threats around the Strait of Hormuz.

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“Until you go and really sit with them, you can’t appreciate what a strong ally they are,” Waltz said.

He said U.S. and allied teams in Bahrain are working with global shipping companies, local shipping officials, insurance companies and other maritime actors as the U.S. seeks to keep vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints.

Waltz accused Iran of making a “phenomenally bad decision” by attacking its neighbors, including hotels, port facilities and energy infrastructure. During one visit to a petroleum site, he said he saw evidence that Iran had targeted fire suppression systems and first responders before striking storage tanks, in an apparent effort to maximize damage.

“The Iranians were deliberately targeting fire suppression systems,” Waltz said. “They were deliberately targeting first responders first.”

Despite the strikes, Waltz said allied air defenses have had “over a 90% success rate” in shooting down Iranian missiles and drones, with U.S. forces working “hand in glove” with Gulf partners.

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Waltz ended his trip in the United Kingdom, where he said officials have been strong partners at the U.N. Security Council on Iran. He acknowledged “hiccups” and “speed bumps” over basing and access issues, but said many of those concerns had been “smoothed over.”

“When we’re working to keep the Iranians isolated diplomatically,” Waltz said, “they’ve been very good to work with.”

Pope Leo XIV left the Canary Islands for Rome on Friday in a Falcon plane offered by Spanish King Felipe VI after his original aircraft suffered a technical glitch, according to reporters at the scene.

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The flight took off just after 6:00 pm and is expected to arrive in Rome at around 11:00 pm. The pope wrapped up a week-long visit to Spain on Friday.

The pontiff’s departure from Tenerife was delayed earlier on Friday by a technical problem with the plane which led him to disembark, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Spain’s King Felipe VI, who had just said goodbye to the pontiff on the runway, boarded the Iberia airline plane and both disembarked and returned to the terminal.

About 80 journalists remained on the jet, along with Vatican officials and members of the clergy.

“The departure of the papal flight has been delayed by half an hour due to a technical problem with the aircraft,” the communications service for the papal trip in Spain said in a brief statement.

The pilot initially told passengers there was a technical fault but later specified a “startup failure of the engine,” which he said was likely caused by wind conditions.

“Our maintenance team suggests towing the aircraft, positioning it into the wind, and attempting a new engine start,” the pilot told those on board.

“We will try this. If it is successful, we can depart.”

The glitch marked an unusual end to an otherwise successful trip to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.

Pope Leo XIV pressed his migration message and also inaugurated the new tower of the Sagrada Familia basilica.

It was the first time in decades that a papal flight had experienced a problem so serious that it required the pope to change planes.

Veteran Vatican reporters, some of whom were on the Iberia plane, recalled a few plane-related incidents during the pontificate of St. John Paul II.

During a 1986 return trip from India, John Paul II’s plane was forced to land in Naples because of a snowstorm in Rome. The passengers and pope took a special train back to Rome.

In 1988 en route to Lesotho, bad weather forced the late pope’s plane to land in South Africa, a country he had excluded from his African trip at the time because of apartheid. He was later driven into the kingdom.

Typically on papal trips, the Italian national carrier ITA Airways brings the pope to his destination and that country’s national carrier brings him home, with ITA sometimes doing the round trip if the voyage is particularly long or to a place that doesn’t have the capacity.

The flights are charters, with the pope, Vatican delegation and security occupying the front of the plane and the 70 or so journalists seated in coach.

Iberia had proudly provided video earlier in the trip of Pope Leo XIV seated in the cockpit, smiling broadly as the plane carried him from Madrid to Barcelona and then Barcelona to the Canary Islands.

In both cases, Spanish military aircraft provided an airborne escort, a sign of respect for visiting dignitaries and in one clip of the video the pope is seen waving to the escorting pilot.

Additional sources • AP, AFP