{"id":1049573,"date":"2026-06-25T17:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1049573\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:22:17","slug":"pragmatic-choice-israels-war-backfires-as-gulf-backs-us-iran-deal-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1049573\/","title":{"rendered":"Pragmatic choice: Israel\u2019s war backfires as Gulf backs US-Iran deal | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doha, Qatar \u2013<\/strong> Gulf states have welcomed a\u00a0breakthrough agreement<\/a> between the United States and Iran to end a war they never wanted.<\/a><\/p>\n

Six countries \u2013 Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman \u2013 form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)<\/a>, which was created in 1981 following fears of the perceived expansionist ambitions of the new Iranian government.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Israel has attempted to isolate Iran and its wide network of regional proxy groups. But in a twist of irony, Israeli aggression in this pursuit has pushed some Gulf states closer to Tehran.<\/p>\n

When Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran on February 28 \u2013 and Tehran responded by attacking Gulf states \u2013 they were again forced to reassess their relationship with their neighbour.<\/p>\n

Gulf relations with Iran, at present, appear more shaped by realism than reconciliation, but this approach could help them navigate the uncertain road ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ongoing conflict \u2026 compelled the Gulf states to pursue a more pragmatic relationship with Tehran, one that will include enhanced dialogue to deter conflict,\u201d Farah al-Qawasmi, a researcher at the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Embracing de-escalation \u2013 not Iran<\/p>\n

All six GCC member states have welcomed a memorandum of understanding (MoU<\/a>) signed by Iran and the US last week. But this is shaped more by the Gulf states wanting the war to end rather than a newfound trust of Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn agreement between the two parties is being [highly] advocated by the Gulf states in [an] attempt to prevent and contain regional conflicts,\u201d al-Qawasmi said.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the US and Iran agreed in 2015 to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) \u2013 putting guardrails on Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme \u2013 Gulf states remained sceptical about their neighbour.<\/p>\n

The current war has only heightened these suspicions, but it has also seen regional states seek diplomacy with Tehran rather than military confrontation, despite Iran directly attacking Gulf cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gulf states still feel like diplomacy is better than using force to get a deal \u2026 to change Iran\u2019s behaviour and to insulate them from Iran\u2019s destabilising actions,\u201d Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer on security studies at King\u2019s College London, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Pinfold points out that Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz via drones and missiles, not nuclear weapons, making dealing with that threat a priority for Gulf states rather than Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

Gulf states will want a more comprehensive agreement between Iran and the US, rather than the nuclear-focused JCPOA, said Pinfold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you talk to people in Gulf capitals, they will tell you that the nuclear programme is a tomorrow problem for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe today problem is Iran\u2019s use of drones and proxies to destabilise and undermine the sovereignty of Gulf states, but also states throughout the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s three-day tour of the Gulf, which ends Thursday, is seen as a way of allaying these fears and assuring the GCC that Tehran will not be strengthened by the agreement.<\/p>\n

\"STANSSTAD,US Vice President JD Vance, left, looks on as Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, centre, speaks and gestures towards Qatar\u2019s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, right, at the start of a quadrilateral meeting between the US, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar [File: Nathan Howard\/Pool via Getty Images]Seat at the table<\/p>\n

Mehran Haghirian, the director of research and programmes at the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, believes Gulf states are in a better position to guide the outcome of the current US-Iran talks than in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are at the heart of the negotiations,\u201d Haghirian said regarding the Gulf states\u2019 role in the current talks.<\/p>\n

In its role as a co-mediator, Qatar is essentially representing the GCC and their interests during the talks, while articles five and six of the Iran-US MoU place Gulf states at the centre of the agreement.<\/p>\n

Among the biggest concerns for the GCC are the future of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, with Tehran demanding tolls on shipping, and calls for the creation of a regional investment fund for Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere really cannot be any new Hormuz authority by Iran that would not include other GCC countries,\u201d Haghirian told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

US Vice President JD Vance claimed last week that the investment fund would be financed by the Gulf coalition, but Rubio said this week that regional allies would not be asked to contribute to any reconstruction fund for Iran.<\/p>\n

Qatar\u2019s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has described the reported $300bn figure<\/a> as \u201caspirational\u201d in an interview with the Financial Times, while no Gulf state has yet said if it will contribute to the fund.<\/p>\n

\u2018Maximum pressure era\u2019<\/p>\n

The analysts stress that the GCC is not a monolith \u2013 with Gulf states having contrasting and changing approaches towards Iran.<\/p>\n

Oman, Qatar and Kuwait were broadly supportive of the JCPOA. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain were more sceptical, but even these states publicly backed the agreement, said Haghirian.<\/p>\n

When Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA in 2018, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain believed they had \u201cfound a partner in DC\u201d.<\/p>\n

That led to a \u201cmaximum pressure era\u201d that brought a period of brinkmanship in the region, said Haghirian.<\/p>\n

Suspected Iran-linked attacks on Saudi Arabia\u2019s Abqaiq-Khurais oil facilities and vessels off the coast of Fujairah in 2019 were \u201cthe initial reaction by the Iranians to that maximum pressure\u201d campaign, he added, but paradoxically, this also triggered a recalibration of relations.<\/p>\n

The UAE and Iran restored ties in 2022, and a\u00a0China-brokered Saudi-Iran agreement<\/a> took place in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was enough of a reason for Saudi Arabia [and] the UAE, particularly, to basically restructure their approach towards Iran,\u201d Haghirian said.<\/p>\n

The war and accelerated pragmatic rapprochement<\/p>\n

While Israel has used war to attempt to increase its presence in the Gulf region \u2013 reportedly sending an Iron Dome battery to the UAE<\/a> \u2013 other Gulf states view both Iran and Israel as unsettling forces in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael started the war, which was a destabilising act, and then Iran escalated by targeting the Gulf states, which was in turn a destabilising act,\u201d Pinfold said.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the Gulf states targeted by Iran still demonstrated patience and pragmatism in dealing with their neighbour.<\/p>\n

Qatar, for example, has played a leading role in mediating between the US and Iran, even after being on the receiving end of Iranian drone and missile attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll six got attacked, and that\u2019s really a level of foreign policy decision-making that is very difficult for any state to be able to really undertake, considering the fact that it was a military attack,\u201d Haghirian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut again, this pragmatism came out within this context to engage Iran and to actually speak for themselves at these negotiations. This war has really initiated a complete rebalancing of the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doha, Qatar \u2013 Gulf states have welcomed a\u00a0breakthrough agreement between the United States and Iran to end a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1049574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[2528,6178,126,83259,774,6856,839,6858,285,6860,6506,2723,49,978,286,234407,659],"class_list":["post-1049573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-bahrain","tag-conflict","tag-features","tag-gcc","tag-iran","tag-kuwait","tag-middle-east","tag-oman","tag-politics","tag-qatar","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116811908300281854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1049574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}