Gulf Arab Perspectives on Regional Security After the Israel-Iran War

The Gulf Arab countries managed to avoid direct involvement in the recent conflict over Iran’s nuclear program—which pitted Iran against Israel and, briefly, the United States—but the situation in the region remains volatile. The war has significantly altered the strategic landscape, raising critical questions for the security interests of Gulf Arab states.

With Israel increasingly empowered and ascendant and the conflict in Gaza dragging on, how interested are Gulf Arab states in making common cause to balance against Iran? How do they balance their desire to maintain their recent détente with Tehran with hosting US forces amid the potential for renewed Israeli and/or American strikes? Is there any hope remaining for the expansion of the Abraham Accords? And how has the war impacted perceptions of how the US, Israel, and Iran interface with their security interests?

On July 29, 2025, the Center for the National Interest invited two distinguished experts to address these and other questions.

—Dr. Aziz Alghashian is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Gulf International Forum. He is a researcher from Saudi Arabia who focuses on the kingdom’s foreign policy. He is known, in particular, as a specialist in Saudi-Israeli as well as Arab-Israeli relations. He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and holds a PhD from the University of Essex.

—Umer Karim is an Associate Fellow at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS). His research focuses on Saudi foreign policy and politics, in particular the Saudi regional policy outlook and the broader geopolitics of the Middle East.

Greg Priddy, a Senior Fellow for the Middle East at the Center for the National Interest, moderated the discussion.