An Iranian man with the national flag of Iran among the ruins of a destroyed police station building in central Tehran, Iran, March 4, 2026.PAP/EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH / PAP
The June attack was directed against a US military base in Doha, but this time Iran also attacked civilian infrastructure such as airports, hotels and ports.
Qatar and Oman tried to mediate between the United States and Iran, and after the first American attack on Iran over the weekend, Oman's Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi wrote on the social networking site X:
“I am horrified. Active and serious negotiations have once again been undermined. This serves neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of world peace. I pray for the innocent who will suffer. I appeal to the United States not to be drawn into this. This is not your war.”
Saudi Arabia also tried to de-escalate the conflict – on January 27, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The prince promised that Saudi Arabia would not allow its airspace or territory to be used for military attacks on Iran.
However, four anonymous sources claim in an interview for the Washington Post that bin Salaman was secretly encouraging the US president to attack Iran, but many experts familiar with the situation in Saudi Arabia question this, and the Saudi embassy in Washington itself denies this information.
The Saudi side is also trying to downplay the attacks in recent days. While foreign media reported the Iranian attack on the Saudi Ras Tanura oil refinery on Monday morning, state-controlled Saudi media did not report the news.
On Monday afternoon, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that life was continuing as normal and social media users should stop spreading rumors and fake videos.
The question is what the Gulf states intend to do. Should they turn a blind eye to Iran's numerous attacks and accept the destruction of important infrastructure? Or maybe they should attack Iran, thus siding with the US and Israel in this war? This will probably not be a popular decision either among the people of these countries or in the rest of the Arab world.
Despite diplomatic rapprochement with Iran, in most places on the Arabian Peninsula, people are probably crying dry tears over Khamenei's death. After all, it was his Saudi prince who in 2018 called the “new Hitler of the Middle East.”
However, the fact that countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have nevertheless been reticent towards US intervention is due – in addition to civilian casualties – also to the long-term consequences that a regional war will have, as previous attacks have already shown.
Photos of the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai burning after a missile attack are unlikely to encourage foreigners to visit the emirate. The thousands of passengers stranded at Dubai and Doha airports may also influence their choice of stopover on their next trips. For countries that focus on organizing large cultural and sporting events, explosions are also not an ideal situation.
On the social media site X, people are asking about the safety of football icon Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, and Qatar has decided to suspend all football competitions just weeks before hosting the Finalissima match between Argentina and Spain.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular have made a strong bet on the artificial intelligence and technology sector in an attempt to encourage foreign companies to set up operations in the region.
One of the companies that moved to the United Arab Emirates is the American Amazon. On Monday morning, the giant said it was temporarily closing its data center in the country after a fire broke out in the morning as a result of an Iranian attack.
In addition to the sectors that Gulf countries are trying to develop, several have suffered damage related to industries that underpin their current income. The Saudi Arabian Ras Tanura Facility is the largest oil refinery owned by state-owned Aramco, which was temporarily closed following an Iranian drone attack on Monday morning, according to Reuters.
At the same time, Qatar – also as a result of Monday's attack – decided to suspend the production of liquefied natural gas. This country supplies about 20 percent. global liquefied natural gas, which could potentially also affect European consumers.
However, it is still too early to say how much the last few days will cost the Gulf states in the long run.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a press release stating that the countries reserve the right to respond to Iranian attacks, but it is still unclear whether the Gulf countries actually intend to engage in a war that will only worsen their economic situation.
One thing is clear: the Persian Gulf countries have expressed “mediation ambitions”, and for some of them, international diplomacy (including Oman and Saudi Arabia) is an important element of foreign policy. However, after recent events, it seems unlikely that they will be able to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine or Israel and Gaza if they have failed to convince Iran not to attack them alone in the Arabian Peninsula.
