{"id":619087,"date":"2026-05-02T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619087\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T11:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:00:08","slug":"can-the-gulf-cooperation-council-survive-the-oman-rift-over-the-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619087\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Gulf Cooperation Council Survive the Oman Rift over the Iran War?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The April 28, 2026, meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, came on the heels of increasing tensions among its six monarchies. Oman\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr al-Busaidi\u2019s March 18, 2026, opinion essay<\/a> asking \u201cAmerica\u2019s friends\u201d to help \u201cextricate it from an unlawful war,\u201d and his justification of Iranian attacks on non-combatant Arab states as \u201cretaliation,\u201d insulted his Arab neighbors. For Gulf Cooperation Council members coming under Iranian missile and drone fire, Al-Busaidi sounded like an apologist for Iranian aggression\u2014a perception furthered by Oman\u2019s April 25, 2026, welcome for Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Oman\u2019s troubling relationship with Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oman has benefitted over other Gulf Cooperation Council states because its ports are situated outside the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The relationship between the Sultanate of Oman and the Islamic Republic of Iran extends beyond cordial friendship; it remains vital to Oman\u2019s economy and security. Analysts point out that during the current conflict, Oman has benefitted over<\/a> other Gulf Cooperation Council states because its ports are situated outside the Strait of Hormuz, unaffected by Iran\u2019s aggression; Omani ports have reported seen a 117 percent increase in exports during the war. Al-Busaidi and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq\u2019s embrace<\/a> of Araghchi while the Islamic Republic\u2019s chief diplomat was enroute from Islamabad to Moscow, suggests that Muscat\u2014bitter about being caught off guard by the U.S. attack on Iran and seeing its mediator role collapse\u2014now chooses Iran\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Since start of the war on February 28, 2026, Iran has launched perhaps 4,000 drones, rockets, and missiles<\/a> at neighboring Gulf Arab states, shocking economies and stressing air defense. Iranian missiles reportedly<\/a> caused severe damage to military bases in the Gulf Arab states and Jordan, and targeted infrastructure<\/a> facilities from oil and gas storage facilities to desalination plants. Gulf monarchies so far have tolerated Tehran\u2019s aggression but pledged \u201ctheir \u2018defensive\u2019 stance won\u2019t last forever,\u201d indirectly placing Muscat in an awkward position.<\/p>\n

Oman will also come into the diplomatic, if not military, crosshairs as Iran\u2019s plan to \u201creopen\u201d the Strait of Hormuz cannot happen without Oman\u2019s cooperation. Iran has hinted at a partnership<\/a> with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and charge a toll per ship. Gulf Arab monarchies reject<\/a> this plan and, in Jeddah, condemned treating freedom of navigation as a bargaining chip<\/a>. Beyond collecting tolls on foreign vessels, Oman may seek to play a role in the post-war era as Iran\u2019s expanded financial hub<\/a> and to protect Tehran from future U.S. and European sanctions. Iran already offers Oman \u201cpreferential trade\u201d status and, in September 2025, pledged to double bilateral trade to $5 billion.<\/p>\n

If Oman shatters Arab unity in favor of Persian empowerment, its Gulf Cooperation Council partners likely will not forgive it.<\/p>\n

Gulf Arab monarchies have demanded a seat<\/a> at the table during any future peace talks with Iran, though it is unclear how meetings in Islamabad have advanced this demand. Tensions will remain high among Gulf Arab monarchies in a post-war period vis-\u00e0-vis Iran, but even more so vis-\u00e0-vis Oman as Gulf states will remain cautious over Muscat\u2019s profiteering and relationship with Tehran. If Oman shatters Arab unity in favor of Persian empowerment, its Gulf Cooperation Council partners likely will not forgive it.<\/p>\n

The Sultanate can neither unilaterally assist vessels to avoid Iran\u2019s aggression nor side with Iran without consequence. Indeed, while the Gulf Cooperation Council formed in 1981 to augment Gulf Arab security against Iranian aggression on the philosophy that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Muscat\u2019s pivot toward Tehran in time of crisis may simply confirm Gulf Cooperation Council irrelevance and encourage Iranian leaders to become more even aggressive toward the Persian Gulf\u2019s smaller Arab states like Kuwait, Bahrain, and perhaps even Qatar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The April 28, 2026, meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, came on the heels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-619087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","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\/619087","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=619087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}