As Gulf state leaders gathered in a Riyadh hotel this week to discuss the escalating Middle East war, Tehran’s strikes erupted outside. Iran was sending a clear message, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said.
“The attack was timed to coincide with this meeting,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told NBC News. “To scare those present. To send home the message that Iran will not stop.”
As the war drags into its third week, the Persian Gulf states are increasingly being attacked by retaliatory strikes from a defiant Iran, caught in the middle of a war initiated by the US and Israel where President Donald Trump has offered changing ideas and a changing timeline. It forces the Gulf nations to make a difficult decision: Whether to join the war.
During a meeting held in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday with representatives of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Syria, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, bin Farhan Al Saud said that the trust between Iran and its neighbors has disappeared, and the hope of neighboring countries entering the war should not be destroyed.
“I think it’s important for the Iranian people to understand that the regime, but also its allies that have been attacked and beyond, have important skills and abilities that they can bring to bear if they choose to do so,” he said.
Israel launched a widespread strike on Iran’s largest gas field, South Pars, prompting Tehran to retaliate against key energy sites in all Gulf Arab states. Melted fireworks and smoke billowing over the Middle East early Thursday signaled a dramatic escalation in Iran’s war — and its threat to the global economy.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in an X post that the response to the attack on Israel and its infrastructure “used a FRACTION of our power.”
“The ONLY reason for restraint was to honor the request for a reduction. There is ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are hit again. Any end to this war must repair the damage to our civilian areas,” he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar sent on X Thursday that the rise of Iran, if it continues “will have painful consequences for it first and foremost, as well as the security of the region, and it will be very expensive, putting a shadow on its relations with the countries and people of the region, who will not stand idly by in the face of threats to their capabilities.”
Countries across the Gulf are eager to see an end to the conflict, but while some want the US to find a way out quickly, others are more concerned that the US is not only abandoning the Iranian regime, but also retaliating, according to another US official.
All six ambassadors of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman – met with members of the Foreign and Military Affairs Committee and senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in closed session Wednesday where they pushed to speed up arms sales and discussed the escalation of the conflict, two congressional aides told NBC News.
It was a significant change from pre-war negotiations. The Omanis, for example, hoped that the US and Iran could reach an agreement and initially sought to act as a mediator in the negotiations.
“They are scared and they want to know how to protect their people,” said a third congressional aide.
A top gulf official told NBC News that Iran’s retaliation in the energy and civil sectors has been a big mistake, and the economic and tourism slowdown in the region is growing.
“The situation has turned into anger,” said the official. The official said that the Gulf states do not want to get involved in conflicts and will not allow the airspace to attack Iran. Everyone interprets it differently than before. They make enemies of their neighbors.
Oman has made it clear that the Gulf states, although increasingly affected by the conflict, do not want a full-scale war, and called for a ceasefire and insisted on a de-escalation, a second senior Gulf official said.
“We have not decided on war, but we are facing the consequences,” said the official. “We want it to end.”
