The Gulf’s Wartime Unity Is Unraveling |
At the outset of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, the Arab Gulf states found themselves thrust into a shared crisis. Under the shock of Iran’s sweeping retaliatory campaign—targeting U.S. military bases on their soil, striking civilian infrastructure, and threatening their collective economic models based on ensuring stability and the free flow of commodities—the Gulf closed ranks. States that often differ over regional strategy swiftly coordinated their defenses and diplomacy, securing a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the attacks, while adopting a shared position of neutrality. The collective priority was to insulate their territories, stabilize their economies, and prevent a broader regional collapse.
As the conflict has expanded and hardened into a war of attrition, however, the Gulf is no longer responding to immediate shock but confronting strategic choices that are exposing its underlying differences. First and foremost, is how to navigate a war the Gulf states did not initiate and sought to prevent but which they cannot escape and has no end in sight. Beyond that lie deeper questions—how to move forward with the U.S. security umbrella, how to navigate Israel’s regional ambitions, and how to balance between coexistence and deterrence with Iran—for which there are no shared Gulf answers.
At the outset of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, the Arab Gulf states found themselves thrust into a shared crisis. Under the shock of Iran’s sweeping retaliatory campaign—targeting U.S. military bases on their soil, striking civilian infrastructure, and threatening their collective economic models based on ensuring stability and the free flow of commodities—the Gulf closed ranks. States that often differ over regional strategy swiftly coordinated their defenses and diplomacy, securing a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the attacks, while adopting a shared position of neutrality. The collective priority was to insulate their territories, stabilize their economies, and prevent a broader regional collapse.
As the conflict has expanded and hardened into a war of attrition, however, the Gulf is no longer responding to immediate shock but confronting strategic choices that are exposing its underlying differences. First and foremost, is how to navigate a war the Gulf states did not initiate and sought to prevent but which they cannot escape and has no end in sight. Beyond that lie deeper questions—how to move forward with the U.S. security umbrella, how to navigate Israel’s regional ambitions, and how to balance between coexistence and deterrence with Iran—for which there are no shared Gulf........