After over a month of stalemate in negotiations, and a highly anticipated trip to China by Donald Trump that many all over the world had hoped might produce a plan or an initiative to end the war, the US president renewed his language of deadlines and threats that he would attack Iran if its leaders did not agree to the US conditions for a deal.
This led to an intense revival of diplomatic efforts by regional countries who have a direct interest in ending the war. While the US war was unilaterally launched in coordination with Israel, last week a significant development took place when Trump declared that he would be putting off plans for a massive bombing campaign following a request from the leaders of three Arab Gulf allies: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
Israel has indeed been a target of Iranian attacks by long-range missiles and through proxies in the region such as Lebanon’s Hizbullah. Its current, extremist government continues to push for resuming the war, claiming this is the only way to end the threat to its security following the Tehran-backed 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also thrives on the illusion that military power alone could ensure Israel’s hegemony over the Middle East.
Yet it is the Gulf nations neighbouring Iran that have paid the highest price, considering their geographic proximity and dependence on the oil trade, practically at a standstill since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, recently wrote an article revealing that Riyadh has rejected tremendous pressure to join the US-Israeli against Iran, recognising that this could only result in massive humanitarian losses and halt ambitious development projects at home.
With this vision in mind, along with Egypt and Turkey, the Arab Gulf nations stepped up their efforts to provide backing for the Pakistani mediators. Top Qatari officials along with counterparts from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have been seeking language that would be relatively satisfactory for both parties. This is indeed a very difficult mission considering that both Trump and the current Iranian leadership need to come out as winners, at least in front of their relative publics.
In Iran’s case, they insist on giving priority to ending the war and the US blockade of Iranian ports, after which they say they are ready to negotiate all other matters of concern, including the nuclear programme. That is unacceptable to the Trump administration, which has been arguing it can have a better deal than the one made by former president Barack Obama in 2015, which had the backing of Europe and China but which Trump rescinded as soon as he came to power in 2017.
Trump can claim he doesn’t care about the effects of the war on US economy and the dissatisfaction of Americans with rising living costs. He also recently stated that he was not worried how the war against Iran would influence the US Congress midterm elections in November. But recent polls suggest more Americans than ever believe that Trump took the wrong decision by waging a war that does not serve US interests.
Meanwhile, it is clearly unacceptable to the entire world that both Iran and the US should continue to use passage through the Strait of Hormuz as a bargaining chip in their current war, considering that more than 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas goes through that waterway.
It is hard to imagine how over 1,600 oil tankers and giant container ships that cost billions of dollars have been stuck in the Arab Gulf since the start of the war. The fact that “Project Freedom”, which Trump declared in early May to assist stuck ships in passing through Hormuz quickly unravelled raised serious questions about the chances of success of any similar plans that depend on military force alone. Simply put, the Strait of Hormuz will not be free and open until this war ends.
Recognising those facts, in all their meetings and phone calls with concerned parties President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty have stressed that dialogue and diplomacy are the only viable pathways to resolve outstanding issues between the US and Iran, and preventing an uncontrolled escalation that could threaten regional and world peace.
Diplomacy in the current conflict is not a choice, but the only option to bring peace to this region. The damages this war has cost, both in terms of human and material losses, will take years to fix, but the first step is to bring a permanent end to hostilities that have produced no winners.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 May, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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