Did the Gulf nations summit fall short of U.S. hopes?

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  President Obama attempted to mend fences with concerned partners in the Arab world today.

  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  The gathering in the woodland presidential getaway of Camp David was designed to cool tensions between the U.S. and some its key Persian Gulf allies in the Middle East, reassuring them of U.S. backing amid regional upheaval and amid their concerns about the U.S. nuclear talks with Iran.

  But Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the meeting with six members of the GCC, the Gulf Cooperation Council, wouldn't produce a NATO-like security treaty, which some had sought.

• BEN RHODES, Deputy National Security Adviser:

  We're not initiating treaties, mutual defense treaties with our GCC partners. The interest in that type of arrangement, I will tell you, has not been uniform across the GCC.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Even before the leaders arrived here in the Maryland mountains, the divisions were clear. Of the Gulf states in attendance, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and the UAE, only two sent their heads of state. The most notable missing figure? The new Saudi ruler, King Salman.

  He backed out just days after the administration said he'd take part. Though the White House denied his absence was a snub, the tensions over the West's pursuit of a deal to curb Shiite Iran's nuclear program before the end of June are obvious. If a deal is reached, many economic sanctions on Iran would be lifted. Gulf nations worry that will enable Iran to make more mischief in the region through proxies like Hezbollah in Syria and the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.

  The Saudis have led a month-long bombing campaign there against that uprising. Today, Rhodes sought to provide assurance the deal is only about one thing.

• BEN RHODES:

  This is a nuclear deal that we're doing on the merits of the deal itself, not as a part of a change broadly in the U.S.-Iran relationship.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Today's summit also comes over differences over how to conduct the region-wide fight against Islamic State militants and Syria's civil war, where the Gulf states want Washington to be more aggressive.

  The president, who spoke just a short time ago, tried to use the gathering to reassure his partners.

• PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

  We discussed not only the Iranian nuclear deal and the potential for us to ensure that Iran is not obtaining a nuclear weapon and triggering a nuclear arms race in the region, but we also discussed our concerns about Iran's destabilizing activities in the region.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  At day's end, they did announce agreements on ways to beef up the U.S.-Gulf defense partnership in areas like maritime security, missile defense, and cyber-security.

  But despite the cooperative steps announced today, this U.S.-Gulf relationship is likely to hit more rough patches ahead.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And joining me now from Camp David is Margaret.

  Margaret, welcome.

  So, you were telling us a little bit about what's come out of this. Tell us more. Fill in some of the details.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Well, Judy, what the Gulf countries got was a very robust statement by the president and in this joint statement that the security of the Gulf states is very much in the national security interest of the United States, and the U.S. will use its power, frankly, including military power, to secure those states from any threat from the outside, any kind of aggression from the outside.

  And then, as I just reported, in specific areas, the U.S. will also work with these partners to beef up their own capabilities in countering asymmetric warfare, whether it's terror attacks or cyber-attacks.

  So, from that point view, the Gulf states got something. But the Obama administration didn't get — or let me put it this way — all it got on the Iran nuclear talks front was a statement by the emir of Qatar, who appeared with the president afterwards, and said the hope was that an Iran nuclear deal would have a stabilizing effect in the region.

  That is not exactly what the administration wanted, but it is something.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  So, Margaret, does that mean it fell short on the Iran side and the Gulf states didn't get necessarily what they wanted — nobody is going home with everything they wanted?

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Absolutely, Judy. On the U.S. side, what the U.S. had really hoped for was an endorsement of President Obama's argument that the best way to keep Iran from being a destabilizing force in the region and becoming a nuclear weapons state is this diplomatic track; that's the best way to restrict its nuclear program.

  They didn't get that kind of endorsement. The Gulf states, as I reported earlier, wanted a really NATO-like defense treaty. As one official said, we have always had a gentleman's agreement. Now we want it on paper. They didn't get that.

  And Ben Rhodes today was quite frank about why. It's not only that it's very hard to get such a treaty through the Senate. It would take years, but also that NATO, remember, is founded on a partnership, not only a security and defense one, but the fact that all these are democracies, the U.S. and Canada and its European partners.

  And the Gulf states are not democracies. And the Gulf states are very unapologetic about that. The ambassador from the UAE said last week publicly, no, we don't share your democratic values, but we have fought together as partners in six conflicts, for example, in the conflict right now in Syria.

  So, there's a real division there, and as Rhodes said today, NATO is founded on a lot more than just defense.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Margaret Warner joining us from Camp David, thank you.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  My pleasure, Judy.