Name: Is Iran sliding into total isolation in the region? | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-03-14T17:03:16.000Z
Duration: 12 min 2 s
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Iranian politics in the Gulf used to look like this.

Following the joint Israeli and US attacks on Iran, the Islamic Republic lashed out and struck its neighbors.

All the Gulf nations also referred to as GCC countries.

Many places it hit host US bases or military facilities.

Even so, those retaliation strikes have not only done actual damage, they've also done significant diplomatic damage.

That was made clear by the Qatari Prime Minister in an exclusive interview with Sky News 10 days into the war.

What happened is really a huge shake up for the trust in the relationship that we have with Iran.

Iran's response greatly increased the cost of the war economically by pushing up oil and gas prices and politically too, because instead of three countries countries being involved, Iran, Israel and the US the war now directly affects more than a dozen countries in one way or another.

They are working on the assumption that if I'm going down, you're all going down with me.

The conflict has the potential to shake the region to its core.

To understand why, we need to look at a couple of dynamics.

A few years ago the Islamic Republic had started to draw up agreements with the Gulf states.

And one reason for that is in Yemen, the militant Houthi rebel group there is a proxy of Iran and designated a terror group by the us.

The Houthis had been attacking ships and oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Their agreement with the Saudis and the UAE both had previously launched air campaigns during the Yemen civil war in support of Sunni backed forces.

Those Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE made those countries look to Iran for answers.

The Islamic Republic managed to create anxiety across the Gulf that if you do not normalize relations with us, we're going to attack.

One way or another, we're going to hurt you, which they've done.

Sara Basubandi is a researcher on Iran and the GCC countries.

She has decades of experience on security and peace in the region.

Some Gulf states decided to deal with Iran not because they had a lot in common, but

The UAE and Iran made a sort of gentleman's agreement to refrain from inflicting pain on each other.

Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic even agreed to restore ties and reopen embassies.

So there was some functioning unwritten security agreements between them.

And I wouldn't say that they were closed by any stretch of imagination.

They were not cooperating in any sense, but

they just had some sort of understanding that they wouldn't have each other Iran hoped this would end up affecting trade relations and boost its economy, which has been suffering under sanctions.

They were embarking on huge projects to move their economies away from oil to something more sustainable.

They needed peace in order to foster the images they wanted of being vibrant, safe havens for commerce, tourism and technology.

Jordanian air defense crews recently intercepted a cluster of Iranian one way attack drones headed to Amman.

Bahrain's air defense forces shot down an inbound drone approaching Manamah's maritime infrastructure, protecting both their population and critical shipping lanes.

Saudi Patriot batteries stopped a salvo of ballistic missiles aimed at energy facilities near Dhahran.

The UAE neutralized multiple drones targeting Abu Dhabi's industrial zone, demonstrating speed and precision.

Qatari fighters for the first time have shot down two Iranian bombers that were en route to their location.

Those Iranian attacks went everywhere, but it would seem for different reasons.

Although Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had some relations with Iran, they were important hosts for the US military, like Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan Air Base.

In 2024, over 2,300 US soldiers were in Saudi Arabia.

The UAE is home to the Al Dhufra Air Base, an important hub for the US Air Force.

These military assets seem to have turned the countries hosting them into targets, regardless of whether the US used them to launch attacks against Iran.

It is not officially clear that these bases were used or not.

Various countries in the region, specifically including the United Arab Emirates that have been now hit hard by the Iranian attacks announced that they are not interested in letting the United States to use their airspace or their bases or to attack Iran.

The UAE in particular was targeted by a lot of missiles and drones, almost as many as were fired against Israel in the first 24 hours.

They also hit airports and civilian sites, including hotels and oil and gas infrastructure.

Islamic Republic wants to demonstrate it to their regional leaders that you are vulnerable even with the U.S.

so you better join our quote unquote team and forget about cooperation and security alliances with the United States because they can't defend you anyway.

These two countries were closer to Iran before the war.

Qatar shares a huge gas field with Iran and its capital Doha was home for years to high ranking members of Hamas.

That's the Iranian proxy group in the Gaza Strip.

Classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US it carried out the October 7 attacks on Israel.

Even so, Qatar has been under attack Qatar has largely intercepted the missiles and drones Iran has been firing against it.

But the government was forced to halt liquid natural gas production after an attack on industry infrastructure.

The attacks have driven a wedge between their politicians, as a readout between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aradchi and his Qatari counterpart shows.

Every paragraph started with the Qatari foreign minister categorically rejected the claims of Mr. Arafchi.

Arafchi said, we did not attack civil infrastructure.

Qatari side said, no, this is absolutely incorrect.

It hosts a smaller US Military presence than the other Gulf states, but

still Iran has not exempted the country as a target.

It hit an oil tanker in the waters off Muscat, Oman's capital.

This despite Oman having served as a mediator in the U. S.

Iranian nuclear talks as recently as February of this year.

I'm sure Arawchi and Foreign Minister of Oman could pick up the phone any minute and speak to each other.

And perhaps the Omani government has really raised concern and said, this is not on.

You know, you cannot really alienate everybody around you because that is going to work to your detriment.

That diplomatic role might save Oman from significant Iranian attacks.

When the fighting stops, Iran will need someone to help broker peace.

So who better than Oman, who has the track record of having done these mediations before?

But right now, mediations and peace seem far away.

US President Donald Trump wrote on his social network Truth Social.

The Iranians seem to be equally maximalist.

we don't see any reason why we should negotiate with the US when we negotiated with them twice and every time they attacked us at the middle of negotiations.

Indeed, their positioning would seem to be supported by their religion.

The Islamic Republic has this very ideologically driven concept that is emerging from the Shia theology and that is victory through fear, which means you have to cause enough fear in your adversary that they would give up from even starting to fight and to confront you.

And the Gulf states seem to be a crucial part of this strategy.

Iran cannot hit the US Directly, so it's hitting them instead.

The strategy would seem to be one of inflicting pain, economic pressure and social disruption on the Gulf states to show the US And Israel that their attacks come at a high price.

That's a risky strategy that some say could backfire.

This miscalculation by the Iranians to attack the Gulf countries has destroyed everything the Iranian president did Apologize to those neighbors his country had attacked.

But this was swiftly retracted and the attacks continued.

Perhaps a sign of internal Iranian divisions where the side wanting to make amends was shot down.

This left the Gulf State states no more secure.

If I was sitting in Abu Dhabi, if I was sitting in the Yar and watching these developments, there would be two thoughts going on in my head.

One would be that the United States started something, they better end it well.

The second thought would be that how could we possibly trust the Islamic Republic after what they've done so far?