{"id":652931,"date":"2026-05-19T19:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652931\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T19:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:19:09","slug":"why-did-gulf-states-ask-donald-trump-to-hold-off-on-iran-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652931\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Gulf states ask Donald Trump to hold off on Iran strikes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fears over a broader regional war and attacks on Gulf infrastructure led the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar<\/a> to intensify\u00a0efforts to persuade US President Donald Trump to delay any potential strike on Iran.<\/p>\n

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday that he originally planned to strike Iran on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place,\u201d the president tweeted.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cin their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to regional analysts, Gulf leaders fear that even a limited American strike on Iranian energy or military infrastructure could provoke retaliatory attacks targeting desalination facilities, electrical grids, oil infrastructure, and shipping lanes throughout the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\"BrineBrine water flows into the Mediterranean Sea after passing through a desalination plant in the coastal city of Hadera (credit: NIR ELIAS \/ REUTERS)Saudi Arabia concerned over infrastructure strikes, Iranian civil war<\/p>\n

\u201cSaudi Arabia<\/a> is worried that if Trump strikes the energy and electricity infrastructure in Iran, the Iranians still have the capability of striking back and destroying desalination plants, electricity generation plants – the infrastructure of Saudi Arabia – which cannot be fully defended,\u201d Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told The Jerusalem Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the summer, if you lose water desalination, you\u2019re in deep trouble. It could cause a humanitarian crisis,\u201d Haykel said.<\/p>\n

He also added that Saudi leaders\u2019 concerns go beyond immediate retaliation and include fears that military escalation could destabilize Iran itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want a failed state in Iran because a failed state in Iran could lead to a Libya-like situation with civil war. That\u2019s also something that could very seriously destabilize the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Haykel, Riyadh and other Gulf capitals have consistently favored de-escalation and negotiated arrangements with Tehran<\/a> over military confrontation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would like to come to some sort of detente, a de-escalation agreement with the Iranians,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has been their position from the very beginning. They were against the war to start with, and they\u2019ve been trying to reach an accommodation with the Iranians and a negotiated settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haykel argued that Gulf governments believe Iran\u2019s regime faces greater long-term danger from internal pressures than from external military action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Saudis believe, like I do, that the real threat to the regime is domestic, not external,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you leave the regime in place, the people in Iran will eventually take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Haykel said Gulf states remain deeply skeptical that Washington would sustain a prolonged campaign against Iran if retaliation intensified.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they really think that Trump cares about them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are worried that he would just leave, declare victory, and leave, and then they\u2019re stuck with Iran and control of Hormuz and extorting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the Gulf states\u2019 central concerns. Roughly a fifth of the world\u2019s oil passes through the strategic waterway, and Gulf officials fear that any Iranian effort to disrupt shipping there could have catastrophic global economic consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different priorities for each actor,\u201d said William F. Wechsler, senior director of Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council and senior director of the N7 initiative. \u201cFor Trump, it is the nuclear file; for Israel, it is proxies and rockets; for the Gulf, it is Hormuz and shorter-range weapons like drones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulf governments united over opposition to escalation<\/p>\n

Wechsler said Gulf governments remain united in opposing any \u201cgreat escalation\u201d of the conflict despite divisions on other regional issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governments of the Gulf are divided on many issues but united in their opposition to a great escalation in the war,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are understandably concerned about the potential for Iranian strikes on their energy production facilities, electrical grids, and water systems being successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such attacks, he warned, \u201cwould bring great immediate hardship and raise unwelcome questions about the long-term sustainability of their national economic models.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many Gulf leaders privately favor weakening or even replacing the Iranian regime, Wechsler said they doubt Washington has either the strategy or the willingness to achieve that outcome militarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost Gulf governments would prefer an outcome that removes the Iranian regime,\u201d he said, \u201cbut are skeptical that the US has a plan, much less the capacity, to achieve that objective in the near term.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fears over a broader regional war and attacks on Gulf infrastructure led the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12,235276,129,3,15275,131,130,11636,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-652931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-gulf-states","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-qatar","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-uae","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\/652931","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=652931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}