![\"Armed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gettyimages-2285874228.jpg\")
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\n Gulf states are looking on with growing apprehension as the conflict between Iran and the United States escalates again.\n <\/p>\n
\n A pattern of strikes and counterstrikes is firmly bedded in, with the additional complication of growing tension<\/a> between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen, who are determined to break a blockade against them.\n <\/p>\n \n The diplomatic track seems moribund for now. The flurry of Pakistani and Qatari delegations visiting Iran in an effort to sustain the ceasefire has given way to pessimism among regional diplomats. Qatar itself has been hit twice in the recent flare-up.\n <\/p>\n \n Iranian drones have also targeted Oman, days after negotiations between the two states on a management scheme for the Strait. And Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has struck ships sailing close to the Omani coastline. Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is down to a trickle.\n <\/p>\n \n Iran has repeatedly warned it is ready to step up strikes on neighbors that host US military facilities and a semi-official outlet \u2013 Fars \u2013 published a list of five ports in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that it said could become targets if Iranian infrastructure were attacked.\n <\/p>\n \n US targeting in recent days has included tunnels, roads, bridges and railways, according to Iranian state media \u2013 heightening anxiety that the conflict could spiral.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cEvery US escalation is met by an Iranian escalation, as each side seeks to establish new deterrence thresholds with every exchange,\u201d according to Israeli analyst Danny Citrinowicz.\n <\/p>\n \n Rather than force Iran back to the negotiating table, \u201can equally plausible outcome is a conflict that spirals beyond either side\u2019s intentions, expanding into a much broader regional war with diminishing opportunities to restore diplomacy,\u201d Citrinowicz posted on X<\/a> Saturday.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gulf states are looking on with growing apprehension as the conflict between Iran and the United States escalates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770469,"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-770468","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\/770468","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=770468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}