Gulf Arab states are urging the US not to end the war before the Islamic Republic is fully neutralized and unable to threaten the Gulf’s oil resources, three Gulf sources told Reuters.

A Gulf source said that leaders in the region are unanimous in their desire for Trump to degrade Iran’s military capacity comprehensively, seeing that as the only alternative to living under constant threat. If Iran is not severely weakened, it will continue to hold the entire region under ransom, the source said.

At the same time, the sources, along with five Western and Arab diplomats, said that Washington is pressuring the Gulf states to join the US-Israeli war.

“There is a wide feeling across the Gulf that Iran has crossed every red line with every Gulf country,” said Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center and familiar with government thinking.

“At first we defended them and opposed the war,” he said. “But once they began directing strikes at us, they became an enemy. There is no other way to classify them.”

“If the Americans pull out before the task is complete, we’ll be left to confront Iran on our own,” he added.

Tehran’s attacks on the Gulf states’ oil facilities, airports, and commercial centers, along with its hijacking of the Strait of Hormuz, have reinforced decades-long Gulf fears about the threat posed by the Islamic Republic.

Regional sources say that unilateral military action by any Gulf state is not a viable option since it would expose individual countries to retaliation, leaving “collective intervention” as the only feasible way forward.

However, according to the report, “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 to discuss coordinated action is currently on the table.

According to Fawaz Gerges of the ⁠London School of Economics, the Arab Gulf states are facing a strategic dilemma: weighing the ongoing threat of Iranian attacks against the far greater risks of joining the US-Israeli war, which would turn them into open enemies of Iran and expose them to reprisal attacks. The result is that they are showing “calculated restraint”—defending their sovereignty without entering the war.

However, Sager noted that Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main rival for regional influence, would be forced to retaliate if Iran crossed red lines by striking major oil facilities or desalination plants or causing heavy casualties.

“In that case, Saudi Arabia would ​have no choice but to intervene,” he said, adding that even in such a case, he believes Riyadh would try to calibrate its response to avoid further escalation.

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz is another thorny issue.

“Now that Iran has shown it can shut down Hormuz, the Gulf faces a fundamentally different threat,” said Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern studies at ​Princeton University. “If it’s not addressed, this danger will be long-term.”

Haykel asserted that much of the Gulf’s oil and gas flows east to China, Japan, and other Asian economies, and that these economies must also take responsibility.

“China helped secure maritime routes off Somalia; it may be willing to step in here too,” he said.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)