Gulf Arab states did not ask the US to go to war with Iran, but some are now urging it not to stop short by leaving the Islamic \u200bRepublic still able to threaten the Gulf\u2019s oil lifeline and the economies that depend on it, three Gulf sources told\u00a0Reuters.<\/p>\n
At the same time, these sources and five Western and Arab diplomats said Washington \u200cwas pressing Gulf states to join the US-Israeli war. According to three of them, President Donald Trump wants to show regional backing for the campaign, to bolster its international legitimacy as well as support at home.<\/p>\n
“There is a wide feeling across the Gulf that Iran has crossed every red line with every Gulf country,\u201d said Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center and familiar with government thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first we defended them and opposed the war,\u201d he said. \u201cBut once they began directing strikes at us, they became an enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran retaliates against US bases<\/p>\n
Tehran has already demonstrated its reach, attacking US bases as well as airports, ports, oil facilities, and commercial hubs in the six Gulf states with missiles and drones while disrupting shipping through the Strait of\u00a0Hormuz\u00a0– the artery carrying \u200babout a fifth of global oil and underpinning Gulf economies.<\/p>\n
The attacks have reinforced Gulf fears that leaving Iran with any means to defend itself via arms or manufacturing capacity could embolden it to hold the \u2060region\u2019s energy lifeline hostage whenever tensions rise.<\/p>\n
As the war entered its third week, with US and Israeli airstrikes intensifying against civilian infrastructure and Iran firing at US bases and economic targets across the Gulf, a Gulf source said the prevailing mood among leaders was \u200bunmistakable: that Trump should comprehensively degrade Iran’s military capacity.<\/p>\n
The alternative, the source said, was living under “constant threat”. Unless Iran was severely weakened, he said, it would continue to hold the region “to ransom”.<\/p>\n
Iran has often viewed its Arab Gulf neighbours – \u200bclose allies of the US that host American military bases – with deep suspicion, even if relations with Qatar and Oman have generally been less fraught.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Iran and its regional allies have been accused of attacks on Gulf energy installations, not least an alleged 2019 strike on Saudi Arabia\u2019s Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities – for which Iran denied responsibility – that halved Saudi output and rattled energy markets.<\/p>\n
The effect of Iran\u2019s attacks this month goes far beyond specific material damage, not only disrupting oil flows but also damaging the apparent facade of stability and \u200bsecurity that has underpinned Gulf countries’ attempts to expand trade and tourism and rely less on fossil fuel exports.<\/p>\n
“If the Americans pull out before the task is complete, we\u2019ll be left to confront Iran on our own,\u201d Sager said.<\/p>\n
Gulf fears of triggering a wider war<\/p>\n
In response to questions about those concerns, the White House said the US was “crushing (Iran’s) ability to shoot these weapons or produce more”, and that Trump was “in close contact with our partners in the Middle East”.<\/p>\n
Of the Gulf countries, only the United Arab Emirates responded. \u200cIt said that \u2060it “does not seek to be drawn into conflicts or escalation” but affirmed its right to “take all necessary measures” to safeguard its sovereignty, security and integrity, and ensure residents’ safety.<\/p>\n
Sources in the region said unilateral military action by any Gulf state remained off the table because only collective intervention would avoid exposing individual countries to retaliation.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0US intelligence warned Trump Iran could hit Gulf allies, contradicting \u2018surprise\u2019 claim<\/p>\n
Moreover, consensus is still elusive. The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE – have held just one Zoom call, and no Arab summit has been convened to discuss coordinated action.<\/p>\n
Gulf leaders remain deeply fearful of triggering a broader, uncontrollable conflagration.<\/p>\n
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Gulf partners were \u201cstepping up even more\u201d and were willing to \u201cgo on the offence\u201d while already working with \u200bWashington on collective and integrated air defences, though he did not \u200bspecify what else they might do.<\/p>\n
A senior UAE official said his \u2060country had chosen restraint, after Iran said the US military had used the UAE to strike Kharg Island, home to Iran’s main oil export terminal.<\/p>\n
Yet Sager said Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main rival for regional influence, could be forced to retaliate if Iran crossed red lines, notably with strikes on major oil facilities or desalination plants or causing heavy casualties:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that case, Saudi Arabia would \u200bhave no choice but to intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Riyadh would nevertheless try to calibrate any response to avoid further escalation.<\/p>\n
Gulf’s strategic dilemma<\/p>\n
At heart, the Arab Gulf states face a strategic \u200bdilemma, said Fawaz Gerges of the \u2060London School of Economics: balancing the immediate threat of Iranian attacks against the far greater risk of being drawn into a war led by the US and Israel.<\/p>\n
Joining that campaign, he said, would add little to Washington\u2019s military superiority while sharply increasing exposure to Iranian reprisals. The result is calculated restraint: defending sovereignty and signalling red lines without entering a war, the Gulf countries neither started nor controlled.<\/p>\n
Right now, Iran\u2019s leverage is evident. It has effectively been deciding which ships can pass through the strait, something no state in \u2060the region considers \u200bacceptable.<\/p>\n
“Now that Iran has shown it can shut down Hormuz, the Gulf faces a fundamentally different threat,\u201d said Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern studies at \u200bPrinceton University. \u201cIf it\u2019s not addressed, this danger will be long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump on Sunday called – with little initial success – for a coalition of nations to help reopen the waterway.<\/p>\n
Read more:\u00a0How many countries have pushed back on Trump\u2019s Hormuz ship demand?<\/p>\n
Haykel argued that, while the global economy depends on Gulf oil and gas, most of it flows east to China, Japan and other Asian economies, meaning \u200bthat they, too, must shoulder responsibility.<\/p>\n
“China helped secure maritime routes off Somalia; it may be willing to step in here too,\u201d Haykel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gulf Arab states did not ask the US to go to war with Iran, but some are now urging it not to stop short by leaving the Islamic \u200bRepublic still able to threaten the Gulf\u2019s oil lifeline and the economies that depend on it, three Gulf sources told\u00a0Reuters. At the same time, these sources and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions\/2368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}