Let's face it, whoever was behind Iran's game plan to attack its Gulf States neighbors badly miscalculated.
Iran has been dropping all kinds of attacks on them, not just hitting American bases, but hitting civilian targets and oil targets.
Apparently, the thought was that if Iran did that, the Gulf States would lean on Israel and the U.S. to stop the fighting.
Instead, the Gulf States are now viewing Iran as an existential threat that has to be permanently dealt with and "defanged." They're talking like the United States about making sure that Iran can't threaten things in the future with missiles and nuclear threats. They also want to make sure that Iran can't threaten the Strait of Hormuz in the future.
READ MORE: Iran's Attack on Gulf States Is Coming Back to Bite Them Big Time
So what did Iran do then? They decided to attack Saudi Arabia while the Gulf ministers and other leaders were meeting in Riyadh to discuss what to do about Iran. Talk about a bad choice. The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, was incensed.
❌ Patience of the Gulf countries is running out
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 19, 2026
After prolonged attacks, the Saudi foreign minister warned that if Iran does not calm down, a retaliatory strike could follow.
It is noteworthy that the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Gulf countries took place amid a… pic.twitter.com/B9tp2BMJFA
Prince Faisal condemned the attacks, “What little trust there was before has completely been shattered."
He accused Iran of trying to intimidate the leaders, but warned they would not succeed.
"The targeting of Riyadh while several diplomats are meeting, I cannot see as coincidental," he continued.
“That’s the clearest signal of how Iran feels about diplomacy. It doesn't believe in talking to its neighbors. It tries to pressure its neighbors, and what I can say categorically is that’s not going to work. The Kingdom is not going to succumb to pressure. On the contrary, this pressure will backfire."
The leaders ripped Iran.
The main takeaway from the meeting was that the 12 countries, which have broadly been sympathetic to Iran in the past, now assert “the right of states to defend themselves”, citing Article 51 of the United Nations Charter on defensive action.
They issued a collective condemnation of “deliberate Iranian attacks” with ballistic missiles and drones that have struck a range of targets, including residential areas, water desalination plants, oil facilities, airports and diplomatic positions.
They called on Iran to stop the attacks, stop funding violent proxies, and stop threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The 12 countries are Qatar, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
Prince Faisal said Saudi Arabia reserved the right to strike back militarily against Iran.
“Do they [the Iranians] have a day, two, a week? I’m not going to telegraph that,” he said. He added that they have “very significant capacities and capabilities that they could bring to bear should they choose to do so”.
He said they were going to employ "every lever we have — political, economic, diplomatic and otherwise — to get these attacks to stop.”
That's huge for them to threaten that, so we'll have to see what they do. But whether they attack back or not, it's clearly just reinforcing their belief that Iran needs to be dealt with, and they will align more with the U.S. and Israel to help make that happen.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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