The Gulf Alliance with Washington is a one-sided pact

Just like warmongering Europe, the Gulf petro-monarchies are paying the price for delegating their defense and security to Washington, their enemy disguised as a savior.

A shield that protects the other

There are truths that history always manages to wrest from diplomacy. This is one of them: the military alliance between the United States and the Gulf petro-monarchies was never an alliance. It was an arrangement. A transaction disguised as a strategic partnership. A predatory lease signed by sovereigns eager to believe themselves protected.

In April 2024, when Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel after the latter had launched drones at its consulate in Damascus, Syria – an operation dubbed “True Promise”, followed by the 12-day war of June 2025, then the open confrontation on February 28, 2026 – the American response was swift, total, and without hesitation. Patriot missile systems, destroyers of the Fifth Fleet, and F-35 and F-15 fighter jets were mobilized within hours. But not for Baghdad. Not for Riyadh. Not for Abu Dhabi. For Tel Aviv. This image speaks for itself. It says everything that forty years of diplomatic communiqués had carefully concealed. Washington made its choice. The response has never wavered since 1973.

One hundred billion for nothing

The figures are staggering – and nauseating. Since 1990, the Gulf petro-monarchies have absorbed more than $500 billion worth of American arms. Saudi Arabia alone signed a mega-deal with the Trump administration in May 2017, worth $110 billion – the largest arms sale in American history, which was later increased to $350 billion over ten years. The United Arab Emirates followed suit with orders for F-35s, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and THAAD systems for tens of billions more. Qatar hosts Al- Udeid, the largest American air base in the Middle East – more than 10,000 troops, hundreds of aircraft, and the headquarters of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). Bahrain has hosted the Fifth Fleet since 1995. Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia: all territories generously made available to American power.

In May 2025, the Riyadh summit produced staggering trade and investment agreements approaching $2 trillion. Gulf sovereign wealth funds injected nearly $70 billion into US assets that same year. Bilateral trade between the two shores exceeded $120 billion in 2024. The recycling of petrodollars into Treasury bonds has been ongoing since the Kissinger-Fahd agreements of 1974, artificially maintaining........

© New Eastern Outlook