By Jason D. Greenblatt

Iran launched missiles and drones at all six GCC states during the recent escalation, striking military, infrastructure, and civilian targets (with the UAE hit hardest), revealing that its “quiet diplomacy” was a tactical charade and that it views the Gulf as part of its backyard.

Gulf states engaged Tehran with eyes open, testing dialogue responsibly, but the war has stripped away any remaining illusions, confirming the regime’s willingness to attack neighbors that had shown restraint.

The author calls for stronger Gulf unity — integrated air defense, shared intelligence, and a common response to any Iranian attack — to make Tehran’s calculations harder, strengthen Trump’s hand, and potentially encourage greater European burden-sharing in regional security.

For years, Tehran offered the Gulf quiet diplomacy and careful engagement, along with promises that its dispute was with Israel or Washington, not its Arab neighbors. Then the war came, and Iran answered its own promises with force.

Iran fired missiles and drones toward targets across all six GCC states. Some were intercepted. Others struck military facilities, infrastructure, and civilian areas in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE, with the UAE absorbing more of those strikes than any other Gulf state. Some of those targets were American assets based inside these countries. Many were not.

The scale and consequences differed........

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