Gulf allies privately make the case to Trump to keep fighting until Iran
is decisively defeated
[March 31, 2026]
By AAMER MADHANI, SAMY MAGDY, MATTHEW LEE and SAM MEDNICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to
continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran hasn't
been weakened enough by the monthlong U.S.-led bombing campaign,
according to U.S., Gulf and Israeli officials.
After private grumbling at the start of the war that they were not given
adequate advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli attack and complaining the
U.S. had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating
consequences for the entire region, some of the regional allies are
making the case to the White House that the moment offers a historic
opportunity to cripple Tehran’s clerical rule once and for all.
Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain
have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the
military operation to end until there are significant changes in the
Iranian leadership or there’s a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior,
according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly
and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The push from the Gulf nations comes as Trump vacillates between
claiming that Iran's decimated leadership is ready to settle the
conflict and threatening to further escalate the war if a deal is not
reached soon.
All the while, Trump is struggling to rally public support at home for a
war that's left more than 3,000 dead across the Mideast and is shaking
the global economy. Yet the U.S. leader is sounding increasingly
confident that he has the full support of his most important Mideast
allies — including some that were hesitant about a new military campaign
in the lead-up to the war.
“Saudi Arabia’s fighting back hard. Qatar is fighting back. UAE is
fighting back. Kuwait’s fighting back. Bahrain’s fighting back,” Trump
told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday evening as he made his way to
Washington from his home in Florida. “They’re all fighting back.”
The Gulf countries host U.S. forces and bases from which the U.S. has
launched strikes on Iran, but have not joined the offensive strikes.
Gulf allies support the war to varying degrees
While regional leaders are broadly supportive now of the U.S. efforts,
one Gulf diplomat described some division, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE
leading the calls for increasing military pressure on Tehran.
The UAE has emerged as perhaps the most hawkish of the Gulf countries
and is pushing hard for Trump to order a ground invasion, the diplomat
said. Kuwait and Bahrain also favor this option. The UAE, which has
faced more than 2,300 missile and drone attacks from Iran, has only
grown more irritated as the war grinds on and the salvos threaten to
tarnish its image as the safe, pristine and monied hub for trade and
tourism of the Mideast.
Oman and Qatar, which historically have played the role of intermediary
between the long economically isolated Iran and the West, have favored a
diplomatic solution.
The diplomat said Saudi Arabia has argued to the U.S. that ending the
war now won’t produce a “good deal,” one guaranteeing security for
Iran’s Arab neighbors.
The Saudis say an eventual war settlement must neutralize Iran’s nuclear
program, destroy its ballistic missile capabilities, end Tehran’s
support for proxy groups, and also ensure that the Strait of Hormuz
cannot be effectively shutdown by the Islamic Republic in the future as
it has during the conflict. About 20% of the world’s oil flowed through
the waterway before the war.
Achieving those goals would require a sharp course correction by the
theocracy that has been in charge of the country since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution or its removal.
Senior Emirati officials, meanwhile, have become more pointed in their
rhetoric toward Iran.
“An Iranian regime that launches ballistic missiles at homes, weaponizes
global trade and supports proxies is no longer an acceptable feature of
the regional landscape,” Noura Al Kaabi, a minister of state at the
UAE’s Foreign Ministry, wrote in a column published Monday by the
state-linked, English-language newspaper The National. She added: “We
want a guarantee that this will never happen again.”
The White House declined to comment for this story about the
deliberations with Gulf allies. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio on
Monday underscored that the U.S. and its Gulf Arab allies are in sync
about Iran.
“They are religious zealots who can never be allowed to possess a
nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future,”
Rubio said of Iran in an appearance on ABC's “Good Morning America.”
“And all of their neighbors know that, by the way, which is why all of
their neighbors have been supportive of the efforts we’re conducting.”
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Smoke rises from Kuwait international airport after a drone strike
on fuel storage in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Friday, Wednesday, March 25,
2026. (AP Photo)
Saudi crown prince urges US not to let up
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto leader, has
told White House officials that a further defanging of Iran’s
military capabilities and clerical leadership serves the long-term
interest of the Gulf region and beyond, according to a person who
has been briefed on the conversations.
Still, the Saudis are sensitive to the fact that the longer the
conflict goes on the more opportunity Iran has to carry out strikes
on the kingdom’s energy infrastructure, the heartbeat of its
oil-rich economy.
A Saudi government official underscored that the kingdom ultimately
wants to see a political solution to the crisis, but its immediate
focus remains safeguarding its people and critical infrastructure.
Iran’s foreign minister early Tuesday insisted Tehran’s attacks on
the Gulf Arab states only target U.S. forces, even after assaults
have hit civilian targets.
“Iran respects the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and considers it a
brotherly nation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on
X, sharing a photo purportedly showing damage to an American
aircraft at a Saudi air base. “Our operations are aimed at enemy
aggressors who have no respect for Arabs or Iranians, nor can
provide any security. ... High time to eject U.S. forces.”
Trump, in recent days, has sought to spotlight that most of the Gulf
countries have stood in lockstep with his administration as the U.S.
prosecutes the war, noting how they’ve coalesced in the thick of
crisis as he criticizes NATO allies for not joining the U.S. in the
fight.
On Friday, he heaped praise on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
and United Arab Emirates for showing “bravery” as the war has
unfolded.
The president, speaking at an event in Miami sponsored by the Saudi
sovereign wealth fund, was particularly effusive about the Saudi
crown prince, hailing him as a “warrior” and a “fantastic man.”
Trump also alluded to the fact that the Gulf countries were hesitant
about his and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision
to launch the war, but have since rallied.
“They weren’t thinking this was going to happen, nobody was,” said
Trump, referring to Iran launching thousands of retaliatory salvos
around the Gulf. “And they turned against them and really became
very powerfully aligned. And they were with us, but they weren’t
with us very obliquely. They were with us.”
Will Gulf allies join the fight?
Trump has yet to call on Gulf nations to take part in offensive
operations.
One factor may be that the administration might have calculated that
it’s not worth the complications that come with crowding the skies
with additional militaries beyond Israel.
Three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly
Kuwaiti fire in the first days of the conflict in the midst of an
Iranian air assault. All six crew members safely ejected from the
F-15E Strike Eagles.
And six American service members were killed on March 12, when their
KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq.
Another factor is that only UAE and Bahrain are among the Gulf
states that have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, adding a
layer of complication to their calculus, notes Yasmine Farouk, the
Gulf and Arabian Peninsula project director at the International
Crisis Group
But Iran has warned it will attack its neighbors' critical
infrastructure, including desalination plants used to provide
drinking water to the region, if Trump follows through on his threat
to strike Iran's power plants if it doesn't open the Strait of
Hormuz by April 6.
“The absence of a clear objective, the absence of the trust that the
United States is really going to go until the end and finish the
jobs … it's making some of them reluctant,” Farouk said. “But if
there is a consequential or mass casualty (event) in one of those
countries, then it would be justified for them to become a
belligerent.”
___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Mednick reported from Tel Aviv,
Israel. AP writers Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Josef
Federman in Jerusalem contributed reporting.
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