The Saudis Could Help End The War. Will The US Listen?

Updated: Apr 28, 2026 12:26 pm IST Published On Apr 28, 2026 12:09 pm IST Last Updated On Apr 28, 2026 12:26 pm IST

Published On Apr 28, 2026 12:09 pm IST

Last Updated On Apr 28, 2026 12:26 pm IST

A war in the Middle East probably wasn't what Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney had in mind in Davos earlier this year, when he made a pitch for the world's so-called middle powers to join together in a world defined by increasingly aggressive military juggernauts.

Nevertheless, his theory is being simultaneously proven and tested in the Persian Gulf. For there can be few clearer examples of the need for what Carney proposed - and the obstacles to achieving it - than the predicament of the Gulf States, and Saudi Arabia in particular, as they try to navigate a conflict they didn't choose and can't control.

It's something Donald Trump and his aides should think hard about before responding to Iran's multi-phased ceasefire proposal, which arguably represents the worst of all possible worlds for America's Gulf allies - other than the alternative.

There was a time when the House of Saud was as enthusiastic as Israel to prod the US into military action against Iran's nuclear program - to "cut off the head of the snake," as the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz put it in 2008. But that was before the kingdom made a huge bet on economic diversification that demands stability to succeed; before the unashamed Israeli expansionism that followed Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist assault; and before President Donald Trump prioritized Israeli security interests over those of his Gulf Arab allies by starting this war.

With the conflict underway, Riyadh now finds itself a victim, with multiple conflicting - and potentially existential - interests to protect and few means to do so.

On one side, Saudi........

© NDTV