Rubio’s Gulf Visit: When a Superpower Fears Losing its Friends

Rubio’s Gulf tour was less a diplomatic triumph and more a reassurance mission, exposing Washington’s growing anxiety over losing its traditional partners. The Gulf is not abandoning America, but in a multipolar world, it is no longer willing to keep all its eggs in one basket.

The Iranian threat is on one side, but the US’s reluctance or failure to protect its decades-long Gulf allies shifted the entire regional strategic perspective. Just like Europe, the call for greater strategic autonomy is now on the Gulf’s tables. Thus, to reduce the levels of these skepticisms towards the US and to make sure the allies of their security partnership with the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio paid a two-day visit to three GCC countries, including the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Changing Gulf Sentiments

The Gulf no longer wishes to put all its eggs in one basket. The debate of changing Gulf sentiments has become old; rather, the perspective has already been changed. Now, it does not mean anti-Americanization; rather, it means the diversification of their security partnerships. Since the 1980s, the Gulf countries have been under the American security umbrella. However, the recent Iran war not only curbed the so-called American security monopoly in the region but also created fissures in the US-GCC alliance. The US conducted strikes against Iran on 28 February 2026, knowing the fact that both countries were negotiating under Oman’s mediation. The post-war Middle East is now standing at a very critical point: the strait, which was already open before the war, now faces immediate........

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