The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states have redoubled their threats against Iran as it continues its campaign of missile and drone attacks. The harshest comments came from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Thursday. Following a meeting of a dozen Arab and Muslim countries in Riyadh, he said that Saudi Arabia reserves the right to act militarily against Iran any trust with Tehran has been shattered.
In a press conference following the Riyadh meeting, the Saudi minister accused Iran of premeditated hostile actions against its neighbours, both directly and via an array of regional proxies which he urged Tehran to rein in.
Following the first attack on Iran by Israel and the US on the last day of February, which killed the Iranian supreme leader and many other top figures, Iran launched missile and drone attacks on targets in all six GCC countries as well as Iraq and Jordan along with Israel. It first claimed it was targeting American military bases and other US and Israeli interests across the Gulf.
When the US-Israel military alliance attacked the off-shore Iranian gas field of South Pars, Iran responded by hitting Gulf energy facilities. Again, it claimed that it targeted installations of which American energy companies are part. But, for example, the Iranian strike on the world’s biggest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility in Ras Laffan, north of Qatar, damaged the interests of Shell, an Anglo-Dutch company. The strike took down almost 17 per cent of Qatar’s LNG production, sending gas prices in Europe to unprecedented high levels.
Iranian religious rhetoric, along with Israeli and American propaganda of concerning a Zionist-Messianic war on Islamic-terrorist Iran, fuelled and confused public opinion across the Arab and Muslim world. As a result, Saudi Arabia called for a meeting to take a unified stance against Iranian aggressions towards its neighbours across the Gulf.
Representatives of Qatar, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates gathered in Riyadh on Wednesday. A final statement by the 12 countries on Thursday condemned the “deliberate Iranian attacks with ballistic missiles and drones that have struck a range of targets, including residential areas, water desalination plants, oil facilities, airports and diplomatic positions”. It also stressed “the right of states to defend themselves”, according to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter on defensive action.
The Riyadh meeting also condemned Israeli attacks on Lebanon and what they described as Israel’s expansionist policies in the region. It was not expected that the meeting would yield a declaration of war on Iran, but it showed that religious rhetoric is irrelevant and expressed solidarity with countries directly or indirectly impacted by the conflict.
The Riyadh meeting also took place amidst diplomatic efforts by Egypt and other parties to stop the war and reach a political solution to the Iran crises through negotiations. American reports talked about Egypt and Qatar playing a role to bring Tehran and Washington to talk and stop fighting. Over the last week Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi visited the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi and the Qatari capital Doha, then the Bahraini capital Manama as well as Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
It is evident that the GCC countries are against the escalation of the war on Iran, even though they reserve their right to defend themselves against Iranian attacks. They may no longer see Iran as a trustworthy neighbour but they are open to supporting an end to war and the opening of dialogue. In fact this was what those countries had been pushing for before the US-Israeli war on Iran broke out.
The GCC countries have the most advanced air-defence systems, along with other weaponry from missiles to fighter jets. Yet their restraint in responding to Iranian strikes, choosing not to attack back, is a calculated stance, according to Western and Gulf analysts speaking to Al- Ahram Weekly. Though some hard-liners in the Gulf do want the Gulf countries to strike Iranian targets, the leadership is reluctant to be dragged into a war not of its own choosing.
Many Gulf countries are wary of two scenarios. If they attacked Iran, the conflict would widen to an extent that makes containing it more difficult. This would cause economic distress for the whole region beyond the affected energy markets and the commodities impacted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Trust in the US is low and the fear of America ending the war abruptly and leaving the Iranian regime on the eastern side of the Gulf is also present. The chaos generated by a failed state in Iran would be a long-term destabilising development no one wants.
As Iranian strikes on targets inside Gulf countries continue, some GCC countries have begun taking measures against Iranian interests. Qatar and Saudi Arabia expelled Iranian diplomats from Doha and Riyadh. The UAE withdrew all its diplomatic staff from its embassy in Tehran. Kuwait closed down Iranian centres in the country, while Dubai closed down Iranian schools and the Iranian hospital there.
But there is no indication that the UAE, which has taken the most impact, is implementing any severe measures. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported earlier that the UAE is weighing up the idea of freezing billions of dollars of Iranian assets held in the Gulf state. That move could sever one of Tehran’s most important economic lifelines. It would be no less significant than hitting economic interests inside Iran by rockets and bombs.
The UAE will probably spearhead any Gulf reaction to Iranian attacks beyond defending their country. Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed wrote on X that his country “will never be blackmailed by terrorists”. Some saw this as an indication of a change in position indicating involvement in attacks on Iran, especially as the UAE said it is willing to take part in a joint effort to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, heeding US President Donald Trump’s call. Yet the Gulf countries are keeping many retaliatory measures in their arsenal to use when needed, whether the war continues and escalates or stops and negotiations begin. Such levers that the Gulf countries hold will be useful later and it might not be wise to exhaust all possibilities now.
Whether diplomatic efforts by Egypt and other states succeed in stopping the war, the Gulf countries will probably limit their response if circumstances allow. Their focus will still be to intercept Iranian attacks, protecting their peoples and facilities. But, once again, patience might run out and a miscalculated action might trigger a military response that escalates the war into a region-wide conflagration that proves difficult to extinguish.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 March, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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