"Since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, over a week ago, more than one thousand Iranians have reportedly been killed, and Iran has responded by attacking various Gulf states-such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates-which are allied with the U.S. Meanwhile, Israel has also been relentlessly bombing Lebanon, with the intention of disarming or wiping out Hezbollah, a paramilitary group backed by Iran which fired rockets at Israel earlier in the war."
"Although many of the Gulf states have worked to counter Iranian influence in the region, often by way of military conflicts waged through proxies, there is no strong evidence that they supported the decision by the U.S. to attack Iran."
"I recently spoke by phone with Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the British think tank Chatham House, and a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to understand how countries in the Gulf were balancing animosity toward the Iranian regime with concerns about what a wider war could mean for the region and the global economy."
Following U.S. and Israeli bombing campaigns against Iran that killed over one thousand people, Iran has attacked Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. Israel simultaneously launched extensive bombing in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, displacing nearly seven hundred thousand people. While Gulf states have historically worked to counter Iranian influence through proxy conflicts, they show no strong support for direct U.S. military action against Iran. These allied nations face a complex dilemma: maintaining opposition to the Iranian regime while simultaneously worrying about wider regional conflict and its destabilizing effects on global economic stability.
#middle-east-conflict #iran-us-relations #gulf-state-diplomacy #regional-security-concerns #economic-implications
Read at The New Yorker
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