Israel-Iran war: Gulf states scramble to secure diplomatic solution

Arab Gulf states have engaged on multiple diplomatic fronts to end the
Israel-Iran war
and return to regional stability as tensions rise.
Unanimous Gulf condemnation of Israel's attack on Iran has presaged a battle for self-preservation. The war could destroy decades of economic advancement achieved by the Gulf countries and destabilise the region.
Having cultivated relations with Iran for years, the six
Gulf Co-operation Council
states – the
United Arab Emirates
,
Saudi Arabia
, Oman,
Bahrain
,
Qatar
and Kuwait – are campaigning for an end to hostilities. They fear US intervention on Israel's side could prompt Iran to retaliate by striking
US
military bases in the Gulf, dangerously widening the conflict.
An Emirati analyst who has close ties to his government said the Gulf leaders 'may not support US intervention [by] allowing airspace access or the use of bases, but they can't prevent it'. Iran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world's oil flows, while Israel could bomb Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, located on the Gulf coast, which would release land, sea and air pollution.
READ MORE
Due to its ties to both Iran and Israel, the Emirates has taken the lead. President
Mohammed bin Zayed
told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that the Emirates has been engaged in 'intensive consultations with all concerned parties' to de-escalate the crisis. Bin Zayed has also contacted Russian president
Vladimir Putin
, who in turn has spoken to Pezeshkian, Israeli prime minister
Binyamin Netanyahu
and US president
Donald Trump
with the same objective.
Oman has been incensed over Israel's attack, which disrupted talks the sultanate had mediated between the US and Iran on limiting Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. The cancelled sixth round of talks was to take place last Sunday, 48 hours after Israel began bombing Iran. Tehran has said Iran will resume the talks once there is a ceasefire.
Having restored diplomatic ties with Iran in 2023 after six years of estrangement, Saudi Arabia has engaged with Tehran and Washington since 'day one', according to Saudi analyst Ali Shihabi. The best outcome would be a deal between Iran and the US, he said.
Crown prince and de facto Saudi ruler
Mohammed bin Salman
has discussed the situation with the Iranian and Emirati presidents. The prince fears war could disrupt his 2030 plan to develop the kingdom's economy and reduce its dependence on volatile oil revenues.
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Qatar – which has mediated between Hamas and Israel – has been 'engaging daily' with the US, its foreign ministry spokesman said.
Kuwait could be the Gulf country to suffer most from a possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz as 90 per cent of its exports pass through the waterway. Its government fears spillover from the Israel-Iran war could extend far beyond the Gulf region.

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Irish Independent

2 hours ago

• Irish Independent

Donald Trump to decide ‘in next two weeks' if US will enter Israel-Iran conflict

White House says president 'not afraid to use strength' as tensions escalate ©Reuters The White House said yesterday that US president Donald Trump will make a decision on whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next two weeks. Citing a message from Mr Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.'

Irish Examiner

4 hours ago

• Irish Examiner

Donald Trump is 'all in' with Benjamin Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran

The unfolding conflict between Israel and Iran is both far more complex and far simpler to understand than much of the reporting to date suggests. Far from a defensive necessity for Israel against an alleged nuclear threat, this escalation appears to be a calculated gamble born of Benjamin Netanyahu's long-held strategic ambitions and the alarming absence of a coherent strategy from the Trump administration, with Iran's nuclear program serving merely as a convenient — and increasingly threadbare — pretext for regime change in Tehran. For years, the international community, including the United States, painstakingly constructed a robust diplomatic framework to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between Iran and the P5+1 nations, established an unprecedentedly stringent surveillance and inspection regime, significantly curtailing Iran's nuclear activities. In return, some of the UN-backed sanctions against Iran were lifted or suspended. An Israeli strike hits an oil storage facility in Tehran on Saturday. The assault on Iran is just the latest episode in an alarming pattern of escalating criminal behaviour on the part of Tel Aviv. File photo: AP/Vahid Salemi In 2018, however, bowing to intense pressure from Benjamin Netanyahu, then-president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the JCPOA. Netanyahu had always been the most vocal critic of the agreement, advocating for military action even as US officials acknowledged that Iran's compliance, as well as a limit to uranium enrichment of just 3%, made the delivery of a nuclear weapon virtually impossible for decades. Notably, Tulsi Gabbard, US director of national intelligence testified in March 2025 that the intelligence community found no evidence of Iran building a nuclear weapon. More definitively, the director general of the IAEA on 18 June 18, 2025, clearly stated "we did not have any proof of a systematic effort [on Iran's part] to move into a nuclear weapon". Thus the "threat" seems, in large part, to be a manufactured crisis. Regime change Israel's surprise attack on Iran occurred just two days before scheduled Iran-US talks that Iran viewed positively and were progressing smoothly (according to officials on both sides). This strongly suggests that these talks were a mere smokescreen, a deceptive cover for an attack that, according to Trump, the US had been aware of for months. While Iran's nuclear programme serves as Israel's public justification for pursuing the war, the true objective appears to be the destabilization of Iran, a clear intention to topple the government and turn the country into a failed state, akin to the tragedies witnessed in Libya and Syria, where central governments can no longer maintain territorial integrity. The echoes of 2003 when the United States and its allies attacked Iraq are eerie: the insistence that Iran is developing alleged 'weapons of mass destruction', disguising the real goal of the operation which is regime change in Tehran. The campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein created utter chaos in Iraq and resulted in the deaths of probably a million Iraqis, the displacement of millions, and 4,800 American and coalition deaths, As was the case in Iraq, it seems abundantly clear that Netanyahu and Trump have no plan for what happens if/after the Iranian regime is defenestrated. This intervention, if successful in toppling the Iranian government, carries the terrifying prospect of a prolonged civil war. Iran's diverse regional groups, including militias from Azerbaijan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, could exploit the power vacuum, leading to a scramble for territory and an even wider regional conflagration. Consequences Furthermore, two other dangerous consequences are likely to emerge. Firstly, Iran may conclude that a nuclear weapon is its only true deterrent against such aggression, leading it to abandon all diplomatic efforts to restrict its nuclear program. Secondly, Iran will almost certainly target US allies and interests in the region. This could involve strikes on oil production and refinery infrastructure in the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia and could block the Strait of Hormuz. Given that roughly 20-25% of global oil exports pass through the strait daily, this will have significant implications for global energy security. The erratic behaviour of the US president is evident in Trump's fluctuating positions throughout this war — from urgent calls for peace, to presenting a final offer to Iran that never materialized, to urging Tehran residents to evacuate, denying involvement in attacks, threatening to assassinate Iran's supreme leader, and finally demanding 'unconditional surrender'. Rogue state Forget these lurching statements about Iran: there is a good case for arguing that they are performative and that Trump is all in as Netanyahu's partner in crime. Trump's American version of authoritarianism neatly dovetails with Benjamin Netanyahu's model: lawlessness and loutishness define them. Violence is their operational creed. Israel is a rogue state now completely out of control. The assault on Iran is just the latest episode in an alarming pattern of escalating criminal behaviour on the part of Tel Aviv, from the repeated and decades-long flouting of UN resolutions, to the ramped up building of illegal settlements and outrageous settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the murder of large numbers of UN officials and journalists, and cross-border attacks on Lebanon and Syria. Already it is evident that, far from protecting civilians via 'precision strikes' against Iranian regime figures, the casualty list includes at least 250 civilians, including more than 20 children, echoing the approach the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has taken in Gaza. Gaza has become not just an Israeli concentration camp but a death camp, where Palestinians are corralled, starved and murdered by Israeli forces every day of the week. Leaders of the collective 'West' who piously pontificate about 'never again' stand by and do nothing; many such governments give the impression that they implicitly approve of what Israel is doing. The collective West thus bears enormous responsibility for its complicity in Israel's genocidal violence, and Tel Aviv's repeated infringements of international law. The Trump-Netanyahu escalation points to a disturbing calcification of the international system of states and institutions, and a complete unwillingness on the part of those who designed it, to defend the rules-based international order which emerged after the catastrophes of two world wars in the 20th century. Palestinian Samia al-Atrash holds the corpse of one of her sister's children killed in an Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in October 2023. The protracted silence of the European Union as Israel carried out the mass slaughter of more than 50,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza has provided Tel Aviv with confidence that there would be minimal pushback if it went ahead with its large-scale attack on Iran. Photo: Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images An outstanding example of this phenomenon can be seen in the protracted silence of the European Union, as Israel carried out the mass slaughter of more than 50,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This provided Tel Aviv with confidence that there would be minimal pushback if it went ahead with its large-scale attack on Iran. The attack on Iran is a dangerous manifestation of Netanyahu's expansive regional ambitions, supported by a US administration seemingly devoid of a cohesive strategy. The consequences, both for Iran and the wider world, could be devastating, far outweighing any purported security gains for Israel and the United States. Shamsoddin Shariati is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University. John O'Brennan is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University and Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies.

Irish Times

7 hours ago

• Irish Times

Diplomatic efforts continuing in bid to help Irish citizens in Iran and Israel

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris has said intensive consular work is ongoing to assist Irish citizens who want to leave Israel and Iran . There is a particular concern about the safety of diplomats in Iran. Ireland is working with other partners about potential routes out. Mr Harris, the Tánaiste, has held talks with the foreign affairs ministers of Saudi Arabia and Jordan over what he termed the 'increasingly dangerous' situation unfolding in the Middle East. Mr Harris spoke by phone to the Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi. READ MORE 'We discussed the crisis between Iran and Israel and the urgent need for de-escalation and diplomacy,' Mr Harris said. 'We also agreed on the need to maintain international focus on the deplorable situation in Gaza and the West Bank . I will continue to engage with regional partners in support of a return to stability and peace.' Regarding the safety of Irish citizens in the region, Mr Harris said there were 29 in Iran they were aware of, with about 12 dependants. 'And if they do wish to leave, we are working with other countries in terms of putting safe routes in place,' he said. 'In relation to Israel, there are more Irish citizens in Israel – in and around 200 – and we're working with other European countries in terms of the potential of [their] getting to Egypt or Jordan and being able to take flights from there.' In discussions with the Jordanian and Saudi ministers, he pointed to Iran being set to attend talks in Geneva on Friday, which is seen as crucial for any breakthrough. Ireland will be represented at the meeting by the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas. The UK will also be in attendance. Speaking earlier, Mr Harris said: 'It is not possible to overstate the serious moment of danger, not just in Iran and in Israel, but indeed in the broader region and indeed in relation to global security. 'We need Iran and Israel to step back from the brink.' 'I think that is a really important moment to try to get to a position where we can get Iran back to the negotiating table in relation to its nuclear programme.' Mr Harris said the war between Israel and Iran was happening against a backdrop of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. 'The genocide is still continuing in Gaza. It is an extraordinarily dangerous situation, and the ongoing challenge in Gaza is still obviously persisting, and the world can't forget Gaza either,' he said. Separately, Taoiseach Micheál Martin , Mr Harris and most members of the Cabinet will travel to a North-South Ministerial Council in Armagh on Friday to meet First Minister Michelle O'Neill, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and members of the Northern Ireland Executive. It is the first plenary in years when both administrations will have published their programmes for government and it allows for a more substantive agenda than in recent summits. Mr Martin has urged all ministers to engage with Northern counterparts since the new government was formed and he has highlighted the potential of the increased funding of the Shared Island Initiative.