{"id":323618,"date":"2026-03-05T18:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/323618\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:50:09","slug":"irans-strikes-on-arab-states-open-door-to-new-gulf-approach-toward-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/323618\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s strikes on Arab states open door to new Gulf approach toward Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gulf states currently find themselves living their worst nightmare.<\/p>\n

Decades of diplomatic maneuvering to avoid direct military confrontation with Iran are going up in smoke from Tehran\u2019s ballistic missile and drone attacks on all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council \u2014 Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.<\/p>\n

Since the US and Israel launched their bombing campaign targeting the Iranian regime over the weekend, estimates indicate that Iran has fired more ballistic missiles and drones at its Gulf neighbors than at Israel itself, damaging US military assets as well as tourist and energy sites.<\/p>\n

According to data released by the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies on Wednesday, Iran fired more than twice as many missiles and about twenty times more drones toward Gulf states than at Israel, with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait facing nearly 200 ballistic missiles each.<\/p>\n

Iran hopes<\/a> that by inflicting enough pain on its Arab neighbors \u2014 and other countries further afield \u2014 it will pressure US President Donald Trump to end the war.<\/p>\n

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But not only has that strategy not worked so far; it may end up backfiring spectacularly, pushing Gulf states toward closer security cooperation with Israel \u2014 even among those who remain wary of openly aligning with the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tFirefighters work as smoke rises outside a damaged warehouse in an industrial area in Al Rayyan, Qatar, following an Iranian strike, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n

Closer to CENTCOM, closer to Israel<\/p>\n

Israel has long argued that the Iranian regime\u2019s weapons programs threaten not only Israel, but the whole region and world. That contention is now emphatically reinforced by this week\u2019s attacks, strengthening the case for Gulf cooperation with Israel, at least on the security level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Arab countries and Arab allies were targeted just goes to show that the Iranian regime doesn\u2019t only pose a threat to Israel,\u201d a spokesperson for Israel\u2019s Foreign Ministry told The Times of Israel while briefing reporters at the site of an Iranian missile attack in central Tel Aviv on Sunday.<\/p>\n

However, the extent to which Israel is providing military or civilian assistance to the Gulf to counter that threat remains difficult to verify.<\/p>\n

When asked by The Times of Israel if Jerusalem was sending any assistance to help those Arab countries defend themselves, the spokesperson was elusive, saying only, \u201cWe are doing everything possible to meet the objective of this operation, and this operation is working and happening hand in hand with our American friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IDF spokesperson\u2019s unit declined to comment on what kind of military assistance, if any, Israel provided to the Gulf states ahead of or after the start of the strikes on Iran, called Operation Roaring Lion.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tIDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir meets with the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, at the Knesset, October 13, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n

There have nonetheless been unconfirmed reports of assistance.<\/p>\n

According to unverified Hebrew-language media reports, Israel has dispatched a Home Front Command crew to the United Arab Emirates to assist with emergency preparedness.<\/p>\n

Such cooperation is politically easier with countries like the UAE and Bahrain, which normalized relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Qatar, [assistance] is much more explosive politically,\u201d said Ariel Admoni of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. Ties between Israel and Qatar grew increasingly strained throughout Israel\u2019s war with Hamas in Gaza due to Doha\u2019s ties to the terror group and its condemnation of Israel\u2019s military conduct in the Strip.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither side can tolerate even rumors of helping the other,\u201d Admoni said.<\/p>\n

The US bolstered its commitment to Qatar\u2019s security through an executive order signed last year, after an Israeli air strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha.<\/p>\n

An anonymous senior Israeli official told the Kan public broadcaster on Tuesday that Israel is holding discussions about possibly providing defense to American assets in the Gulf, to \u201chelp in the American defense effort, just as [the Americans] help in our defense effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA member of the US Air Force stands near a Patriot missile battery at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, February 20, 2020. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds\/Pool via AP, File)<\/p>\n

But the extent of security ties with Israel is also being indirectly increased during the campaign as coordination between CENTCOM \u2014 the US regional military command that includes all of its Middle East allies, including in the Gulf \u2014 and the IDF reaches an unprecedented level<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a result, Gulf countries\u2019 reliance on America\u2019s protection could lay the groundwork for an ad-hoc strategic coalition that includes Israel as well, increasing cooperation on civil defense, air defense, and intelligence sharing.<\/p>\n

Elements of that cooperation took shape during the CENTCOM-guided defensive effort against two Iranian drone and missile attacks on Israel in 2024. Multiple Arab countries joined the defense against the strikes.<\/p>\n

The current conflict \u201ccreates a shared strategic foundation between [Israel] and [the Gulf],\u201d said Eran Lerman, vice president of the JISS and former deputy director of Israel\u2019s National Security Council.<\/p>\n

The United States has for years played a central role in Gulf security \u2014 one that has only grown more visible during the conflict.<\/p>\n

Gulf requests for more interceptors would be primarily directed at Washington. Several Gulf states rely heavily on American defense systems, including Patriot missile interceptors. Qatar and the UAE, in particular, depend on these systems to a significant degree, while the US maintains major military bases throughout the region.<\/p>\n

The US has also moved to secure regional energy supplies, with Trump promising that US naval forces will protect oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tIran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during the 17th edition of the Al-Jazeera Forum in Doha on February 7, 2026. (Karim Jaafar\/AFP)<\/p>\n

Static diplomacy<\/p>\n

Even though the shared threat of the Iranian strikes may lead to greater security ties with Israel in the short or long term, Gulf states have not fundamentally altered their diplomatic approach toward Tehran \u2014 or toward Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Many Gulf governments summoned Iranian ambassadors for explanations, but have not expelled them outright or frozen ties, as they appear to be attempting to coordinate a unified regional response rather than escalating tensions further.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroadly speaking, the original dynamic is continuing,\u201d said Admoni. \u201cThe fact that the Gulf states and Israel are being attacked from the same source does not suddenly change the divisions in the Gulf \u2014 between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman \u2014 in terms of how each of them views Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some countries, Iran\u2019s actions were less surprising than for others.<\/p>\n

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have maintained cautious engagement with Iran in recent years, maintaining embassies in the country and holding limited trade ties, even amid strategic tensions. The current conflict \u201chas only reinforced\u201d their long-held perception of the Islamic Republic as an unreliable actor, Admoni said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA woman walks past a billboard displayed in Tel Aviv on June 26, 2025 by the Coalition for Regional Security showing Arab leaders surrounding US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a slogan reading \u201cNow is the time for the Abraham Accords.\u201d (Jack GUEZ \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Countries such as Qatar and Oman, by contrast, had hoped their diplomatic outreach toward Iran might insulate them from direct confrontation. \u201cThere was a real sense that Iran depends on them,\u201d Admoni said.<\/p>\n

But regardless of those differences, the Gulf appears to be unified in how it is responding to Tehran, amid damage to economic targets such as tourism infrastructure and energy facilities \u2014 the backbone of the Gulf economies.<\/p>\n

Despite some media reports that Riyadh may take a more aggressive tone toward the Islamic Republic, the Saudis, Qataris, and Omanis all appear to still be choosing a dialogue-based approach, albeit one replete with rebuke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This may be because these countries are experiencing \u201ca real fear that Trump will not go all the way\u201d in the goals laid out in the operation, making them wary of supporting a campaign that antagonized the Iranian regime without gaining much from it, Admoni said.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Lerman sees the current situation as an \u201copportunity for us to rebuild what I\u2019ve been calling for years the \u2018stability camp\u2019 in the Middle East,\u201d by coordinating what the endgame is in the Iran campaign, and \u201cto significantly tighten security ties with the Gulf states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether this security coordination could ultimately lead to new or expanded formal or diplomatic ties \u2014 especially with countries more reluctant to create ties with Israel, like Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia \u2014 remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

For both future security cooperation and formal ties, Israel\u2019s military performance carries great potential at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re demonstrating our capabilities to them \u2014 this is very important,\u201d Lerman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gulf states currently find themselves living their worst nightmare. Decades of diplomatic maneuvering to avoid direct military…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-323618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}