struck the Gulf states<\/a> with missiles and drones by the thousands.<\/p>\nThe ongoing blitz is damaging energy infrastructure and destroying the reputation of the Gulf states as an oasis of calm and economic development in an otherwise turbulent region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no insurance policy against having a fanatic millenarian state as a neighbor.<\/p>\n
And nothing quite concentrates the mind like an unprovoked drone attack on one of your luxury hotels \u2014 or your airports, oil fields and data centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iran likes to pretend that it is only striking at military infrastructure, but that\u2019s absurd. \u00a0<\/p>\n
As long as Iran is run on its current basis, it is a grave danger to these countries \u2014 which prior to the war tried to keep their heads down, or even get closer to Iran as a way to mitigate the threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/view-looking-north-showing-strait-124451727_8860e7.jpg\")
A view looking north, showing the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf, with the Zagros Mountains and Qeshm Island of Iran in the background, and areas of Oman, Muscat, and the United Arab Emirates in the foreground. Getty Images<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the approach the Saudis tried after an Iran-backed attack hampered the country\u2019s oil production in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That experiment is now done.<\/p>\n
According to published reports, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, privately urged President Donald Trump to launch the war even as the Saudis talked up diplomacy in public \u2014 and now MBS has been telling Trump to go all the way and topple the Iranian government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The New York Times relates that the Saudi leader \u201cis concerned that if Mr. Trump pulls back now, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East will be left to confront an emboldened and furious Iran on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UAE has been a particular Iranian target.<\/p>\n
Its ambassador to the United States wrote in The Wall Street Journal the other day, \u201cWe need a conclusive outcome that addresses Iran\u2019s full range of threats: nuclear capabilities, missiles, drones, terror proxies and blockades of international sea lanes.\u201d<\/p>\n
One is tempted to conclude that the Gulf states are \u201call neo-cons now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019d be over-stating it, though.<\/p>\n
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Despite getting hit by Iran, Oman is maintaining its traditional posture as a mediator and Qatar is always a bad actor.<\/p>\n
Much depends on how the war turns out, but it\u2019s easy to see the Gulf states looking to the United States for greater security guarantees.<\/p>\n
They may warm up further to Israel, which is demonstrating its military might as it confronts an Iran that has no compunction about lashing out at states that are doing it no harm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It may be easy for hostile US observers to portray the Iran war as about Israel and only Israel.<\/p>\n
But the Gulf states know better \u2014 and have the battle damage to prove it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
X: @RichLowry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not just Israel.\u00a0 One of the least convincing arguments of opponents of the Iran war is that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,30732,12,801,803,133,3,15581,226774,1767,15275,131,11636,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-556100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-bahrain","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-kuwait","tag-news","tag-oman","tag-operation-epic-fury","tag-opinion","tag-qatar","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Saudi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/saudi-crown-prince-prime-minister-123975711.jpg\")
Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman holds President Trump\u2019s hand during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on Nov. 18, 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n