Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, a Dubai-based property mogul with close ties to the UAE leadership, addressed Donald Trump with blunt outrage on X on 6 March. He posed a direct query regarding the mandate the former president assumed to pull the region into a fight with Iran.
Al Habtoor wrote that Donald Trump had forced the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the wider Arab world into a furnace they never requested. In a country where public dissent is a rare commodity, the letter provided a window into the fury burning through the local elite.
Al Habtoor questioned whether Donald Trump had been steered into the hostilities by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He effectively framed the war as a crisis born of overseas lobbying rather than American strategy.
The message went public during the second week of a conflict that had already upended regional accounts and standing.
Pre-War Diplomacy Washington Chose to Overlook
The stance of the Gulf countries was plain to see.
Oman was conducting indirect talks between Washington and Tehran right until the campaign started, and Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi announced that a peaceful outcome was nearly in hand.
Qatar’s former prime minister cautioned that Gulf states had to avoid the line of fire. Monica Marks, a professor in Abu Dhabi, said that regional capitals watched the long-forecasted disaster manifest despite their immense labour to stop it. Academic voices across the region agreed that the Gulf tried its utmost to prevent military action.
The Arab League met on 8 March and issued a statement strongly condemning the Iranian strikes. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit declared that Arab states were bystanders to the fighting and had explicitly forbidden their land or sky from being used as a staging ground.
Oman’s Three Announcements Expose the Structural Cage
The shift in the Omani position on the opening day of the war exposed the structural cage the Gulf states occupied. Muscat issued three announcements that slowly arrived at a full condemnation of the Iranian strikes.
Aboul Gheit condemned the Iranian targeting of Oman’s Port of Duqm and an oil tanker, expressing horror at the assault on a state that spent so much capital on mediation. He also warned about the erratic nature of Iranian military commands. Iran rewarded the Omani record of peacemaking with missiles aimed at its ports.
The hope that neutrality would shield the Gulf was shattered by Iranian fire. Donald Trump told CNN that regional states were now begging for a seat at the table in a fight they once tried to avoid.
The Carnegie Endowment assessed that Iran was using the Gulf states as levers to squeeze Donald Trump into a ceasefire. The strategy turned the region into an unwilling pressure point.
Gulf Investments in Washington
The UAE pledged 1.4 trillion dollars in investments to the United States and built intimate commercial links with the Trump family, but the chequebook provided Abu Dhabi no vote in the decision to fight.
Al Habtoor asked if they were only accidentally paying for their own funeral. Iranian drone strikes on Amazon data centres in the UAE hit at the American desire to keep hardware in the region.
Another analysis contended that the air defence systems funded by the Gulf were an architecture built to safeguard Israel while leaving regional skies as a secondary shield.
Israel Courts India as Washington’s Supremacy Wanes
The war accelerated a global reorganisation that had been brewing for years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a new alliance with India and Greece, pitching it as a shield against hostile forces.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel shortly before the fighting started to sign defence and artificial intelligence pacts, telling the Knesset that India stands with Israel. Since Israel sends roughly 40% of its weapons exports to India, the two are natural partners in a world where power is more distributed. Ostensibly, an Israel moving towards India is an Israel preparing for life after American supremacy.
The partnership has weighty implications for the Gulf. It is recorded that over nine million Indian citizens work in the region, and trade with the Gulf makes up a huge part of India’s overall commerce.
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor places India at the centre of a network linking the Mediterranean to Asia. As Israel anchors its security in India, the Gulf will be pulled into a new orbit whether it wants to be or not.
Sovereign Architects of Gulf Security
The Iran war forced a decade of slow change into one harsh lesson. Research documented that the region had been branching out since 2019 by making deals with China and Russia.
The Gulf Research Centre describes the Gulf as a group of states finally taking the lead in their own affairs. The war accelerated the reorganisation by proving in real time what happens if a security partner wishes to act alone. The Atlantic Council warned that the events will force Gulf states to completely rethink their choices.
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