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Discontent with the United States is growing among its Gulf allies amid concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump has been unable to secure a diplomatic end to the prolonged war with Iran, according to The Washington Post, citing Arab and Western officials.
"Trump started this war, and we are paying the price," a Gulf official told the Post on condition of anonymity, saying anger toward the U.S. was at its highest point since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February.
After months of conflict and continuing missile and drone strikes by Iran and its proxies, the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are now united in their aggravation with the Trump administration, according to three officials and a former U.S. diplomat cited by the Post.
Some states have begun to debate the utility of continuing to host large U.S. military installations on their territory.
Gulf states continue to rely on Washington as a close security partner and major arms supplier, and Qatar and Bahrain host large U.S. bases. But the frustration is leading some states to consider new arrangements, though analysts told the Post these dynamics are unlikely in the near term to significantly reorder the region.
A mutual defense agreement signed by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan last week was "a signal to the U.S.," a senior European official told the Post.
The pact shows the three powerful Sunni Muslim states "are trying to diversify their security and defense partnerships," said the official, who is in regular contact with Gulf leaders.
"In their mind, the U.S. is not enough," the official added.
A White House official rejected the assessment, telling the Post that Trump "has extraordinary relationships with all of our Gulf partners."
"The United States has been in regular contact with all of our regional allies since before Operation Epic Fury," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under White House rules.
"Iran is more isolated than ever before as a result of its terrorist actions," the official noted.
Firas Maksad, director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at the Eurasia Group, told the Post there has been "frustration from the get-go," with U.S. allies in the Gulf feeling they were "unnecessarily entangled" in a war Trump is now struggling to resolve.
Maksad, who has extensive contacts within Gulf leadership, said Trump's Iran policy is often described in the region as "erratic" and "unpredictable."
Anna Jacobs, a fellow with the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said there has been "diminished trust" of the U.S. since the war began, according to the Post. U.S. allies believe the country's "conduct in the region is making them less safe, not more safe," she said.
A Western diplomat in the region cautioned, however, that these developments do not amount to a significant shift in sentiment toward the U.S. American forces were not "enthusiastically" welcomed even before the war with Iran, the diplomat said.
"It was more something that was a necessary evil," the diplomat said, adding, "Now, the necessity of it is being put in question."
Saudi Arabia has come under particular pressure in recent weeks, facing attacks from Iran and Iran-backed groups in Iraq as well as Iranian-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen.
Houthi forces have repeatedly struck Saudi energy infrastructure and are attempting to shut down the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea. Since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz early in the war, Saudi Arabia has depended on its Red Sea ports to export oil.
Attitudes toward the war among Gulf leaders have shifted over time.
Oman has opposed the conflict from the outset, but Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have at times backed it. Emirati forces have conducted "numerous" strikes on Iranian territory in recent months, according to the Western diplomat cited by the Post, and Saudi forces have struck back at Iranian-backed groups attacking from Iraq.
"At the beginning of the war, they were, I don't want to say, supportive, but honestly, they were not totally against the war," the senior European official told the Post, saying the thinking in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh was that a quick, definitive victory could prove beneficial.
That began to shift ahead of the first round of U.S.-Iran talks in April, the official said, when it became clear the Iranian government would not fall and would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
In the months since, Trump's inconsistency has alarmed the Gulf, said Bader Al-Saif, an assistant professor of history at Kuwait University and a fellow of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, who spoke to the Post.
"Even before all this back and forth with Trump, there was no clear strategy," Al-Saif said, pointing to the Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran signed in June.
"The MoU was a joke," he said, noting the agreement failed to address the Gulf states' top concerns, including Iran's ballistic missile arsenal and its support for proxy forces.
"Those terms were not terms of our liking," Al-Saif said, "and that's why it died out sooner than later."
The White House official told the Post that Trump "has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy."
"Unfortunately, Iran chose the path of violence by killing American troops, committing international acts of terrorism, and lashing out at its neighbors in the region, and the Commander-in-Chief ensured that they reaped the consequences of those decisions," the official said.
Despite the frustration, Gulf states lack an immediately viable alternative to their decades-long security partnerships with the United States.
"Whatever we do," the Gulf official said, "we cannot say no to the United States."
Douglas Silliman, a U.S. ambassador to Kuwait and Iraq under Presidents Barack Obama and Trump and now president of the Arab Gulf States Institute, told the Post he heard frustration with Washington during a recent visit to the region, but said he has also increasingly heard anger directed at Tehran over its continued attacks on infrastructure and refusal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Silliman described the regional mood as "kind of this odd contradiction of being mad at the United States for starting the war and being dependent upon the United States" for equipment, munitions and intelligence.
If the conflict continues, economic pressure on the Gulf will grow.
The region traditionally quiets over the summer, but conferences, summits, festivals and Formula One races that typically pack the calendar from October through December remain in limbo this year.
Saudi Arabia's 10th annual Future Investment Initiative in late October, often called "Davos in the Desert", could be an early test of whether senior officials and top CEOs are willing to visit the region, the Western diplomat told the Post.
"They may tweak the theme" to acknowledge continued regional insecurity, the diplomat said.
"To postpone would send the wrong message," the diplomat noted.
Iran continues to launch drones and missiles against Kuwait, but much of daily life in the capital has returned to normal, according to Al-Saif, cited by the Post.
"We have been through worse," he said, referring to Iraq's 1990 invasion that triggered the Gulf War.
"We handled the occupation. We can handle this," he added.
The security lockdown from the war's earlier stage has been largely lifted, with businesses open, traffic returned to city streets, and Al-Saif resuming in-person teaching.
Still, he said the conflict must not continue much longer.
"A quick end is obviously something we want," he said, adding, "The Gulf War was much more straightforward than today."
Iran and Oman have been negotiating safe shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz for the past three months, with Tehran saying the full restoration of security and normal commercial shipping depends on an end to U.S. military actions.
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