There is an old strategic maxim: never give your enemy a reason to unite his friends. Iran has spent the last two weeks doing exactly that, and the consequences are now plain for anyone paying attention to the UN Security Council chamber in New York, where 135 nations — a record — formally condemned Tehran’s missile and drone barrage against its own neighbors.

Rather than isolating its adversaries, Iran’s missile and drone barrage has pushed countries that once tried to remain neutral into closer strategic alignment with Washington and its partners. By targeting infrastructure, airports, ports, and even civilian areas across neighboring states, Tehran has alarmed governments that had little appetite for being drawn into the conflict. In the process, Iran may have triggered a geopolitical shift that strengthens the very coalition it hoped to weaken.

Every Gulf Arab nation PLUS 135 co-sponsors (a UN record) has now formally condemned Iran. The regime has never been so diplomatically isolated. https://t.co/9N34YkkXUB — Ambassador Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) March 11, 2026

Every Gulf Arab nation PLUS 135 co-sponsors (a UN record) has now formally condemned Iran. The regime has never been so diplomatically isolated. https://t.co/9N34YkkXUB

— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) March 11, 2026

The irony is stark: the missiles meant to demonstrate Iranian power may ultimately reshape the regional balance in ways that work against Tehran. Even longtime partners such as Russia and China chose not to defend Tehran outright, opting instead to abstain from blocking the condemnation, which signals how limited Iran’s diplomatic support has become.

BREAKING: The UN Security Council has adopted a Bahrain-led resolution on the escalating crisis in the Middle East. RESULTIn Favor: 13Against: 0Abstain: 2 (China and Russia) pic.twitter.com/fkNxaP6UFR — UN News (@UN_News_Centre) March 11, 2026

BREAKING: The UN Security Council has adopted a Bahrain-led resolution on the escalating crisis in the Middle East.

RESULTIn Favor: 13Against: 0Abstain: 2 (China and Russia) pic.twitter.com/fkNxaP6UFR

— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) March 11, 2026

Rather than weakening its adversaries, Iran’s escalation has alarmed governments across the Gulf, drawn European powers closer to the crisis, and produced a rare moment of broad international consensus against Tehran.  Not just the usual Western suspects. Not just the Gulf states who were under fire. One hundred and thirty-five co-sponsors. The regime in Tehran, which has spent decades cultivating the image of a righteous resistance power standing up to American imperialism, now finds itself more diplomatically isolated than at any point in the Islamic Republic’s history. That is a remarkable achievement — and Iran’s clerical regime earned every bit of it.

ADOPTED: The @UN Security Council has agreed Resolution 2817 condemning Iran's reckless attacks against the Gulf States and Jordan. Iran must cease all attacks and threats against regional and international security, including ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. pic.twitter.com/IVpe0hmk2J — UK at the UN ???????????????? (@UKUN_NewYork) March 11, 2026

ADOPTED: The @UN Security Council has agreed Resolution 2817 condemning Iran's reckless attacks against the Gulf States and Jordan.

Iran must cease all attacks and threats against regional and international security, including ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. pic.twitter.com/IVpe0hmk2J

— UK at the UN ???????????????? (@UKUN_NewYork) March 11, 2026

When Iran launched its retaliatory campaign following U.S. and Israeli strikes on its territory at the end of February, the logic — to the extent there was any — seemed to be escalation dominance. Hit back hard enough, broad enough, and you force Washington’s coalition partners to blink. Rattle the Gulf states. Make the costs of siding with America too high.

It was a plausible theory. The Gulf states had their own complicated history with Washington. They were deeply uneasy about being drawn into a war that wasn’t theirs. Saudi Arabia had been publicly hedging. Qatar hosts the largest U.S. air base in the region but was quietly making noises about not wanting to be a staging ground for strikes on a Muslim country. Even the UAE, an unofficial American security partner for years, was cautious.

Ballistic missiles into Doha’s airport. A drone strike that killed an eleven-year-old child in Kuwait. Over a thousand projectiles, missiles, cruise rockets, and drones were aimed at the UAE alone, hitting a French naval facility, a U.S. consulate, two Amazon data centers, and close enough to the Burj Al Arab that the shrapnel damage made international headlines. A strike on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery. Twice.

There is a phrase for this kind of warfare: indiscriminate. And indiscriminate is exactly the word the Gulf Cooperation Council’s emergency session used when it convened on March 1st, declaring that an attack on any member state was an attack on all of them, and reserving the right to collective self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. The Arab League’s secretary-general called it a “strategic mistake.” He was being diplomatic. It was a strategic catastrophe.

Consider what the region looked like before February 28th. The Trump administration’s operation against Iran was not productive even among American allies. The United Kingdom was publicly refusing to allow U.S. aircraft to fly strike missions from British bases. France was making noise about de-escalation. Turkey’s President Erdogan was positioning his country as a defender of Muslim solidarity, condemning the American strikes as illegal and mourning Iran’s Supreme Leader on state television.

Now look at the map today. Britain reversed course after Iranian strikes hit a base in Kuwait being used by Italian forces. France pledged to defend the Gulf after the assault on a French naval installation in the UAE. Greece is deploying assets to Cyprus. Ursula von der Leyen, speaking for the European Union, called for a “credible transition” in Iran — language that, translated from diplomatic into plain English, means regime change.

The situation in the Middle East remains volatile. But three things are clear: First, there is renewed hope for the long-suffering people of Iran. We strongly support their right to determine their own future. Second, we must do everything possible to de-escalate and stop the… pic.twitter.com/LIId5FFGcI — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 2, 2026

The situation in the Middle East remains volatile.

But three things are clear:

First, there is renewed hope for the long-suffering people of Iran.

We strongly support their right to determine their own future.

Second, we must do everything possible to de-escalate and stop the… pic.twitter.com/LIId5FFGcI

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 2, 2026

And then there is Turkey. Erdogan spent the opening days of the conflict conspicuously avoiding getting hit, which was suspicious enough to prompt widespread commentary about whether his country was quietly coordinating with Tehran. Whatever the truth of that, a missile entered Turkish airspace on March 6th, shot down by NATO air defenses. The alliance’s spokeswoman condemned it. Article 5 discussions began.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemns Iranian drone attacks on Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave and warns Iran against damaging its ties with Ankara. pic.twitter.com/CPKQWdLMFS — Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) March 5, 2026

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemns Iranian drone attacks on Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave and warns Iran against damaging its ties with Ankara. pic.twitter.com/CPKQWdLMFS

— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) March 5, 2026

William Wechsler at the Atlantic Council put it with uncharacteristic bluntness: people in the Gulf went to bed angry at the United States and Israel, and woke up furious at Iran. That captures something real and important about how alliances actually shift. It isn’t usually the product of careful diplomatic persuasion and well-crafted communiqués. It’s the product of someone doing something so obviously wrong, so aggressively stupid, that it resets the emotional math entirely.

There is also a simple military logic to what has happened. Retired Brigadier General John Teichert explained it plainly: with Gulf bases now open to American aircraft, the operational radius for U.S. strikes compresses from roughly a thousand miles to a few hundred. That is not a marginal improvement. That is a different war. Iran may have meant to demonstrate the costs of hosting American power. It managed instead to make hosting American power suddenly feel like survival.

European governments initially approached the crisis with caution. Many feared that open involvement could fuel a broader war across the region. However, Iran’s strikes on locations connected to European military personnel changed that calculus. Bases used by allied forces in the Gulf were threatened or targeted, prompting governments in London and Paris to reconsider their positions.

Gradually, European support for regional defensive efforts increased. Some governments allowed greater logistical cooperation with U.S. operations, while others pledged additional support to protect maritime routes and regional infrastructure. At the diplomatic level, European leaders began warning that the escalation risked triggering a wider regional conflict with global economic consequences.

The United Arab Emirates ambassador, Mohamed Abushahab, spoke for his counterparts when he said that Iran’s strikes sought to spread terror — and that his people defied it. Qatar rounded up seven IRGC operatives it caught running intelligence cells inside its borders. The UAE closed its embassy in Tehran.

Today, the UN Security Council condemned in the strongest terms Iran’s unprovoked attacks on the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. The UAE strongly welcomes the adoption of Resolution 2817. The overwhelming support – reflected in… pic.twitter.com/lPZbLEJtZV — UAE Mission to the UN (@UAEMissionToUN) March 11, 2026

Today, the UN Security Council condemned in the strongest terms Iran’s unprovoked attacks on the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

The UAE strongly welcomes the adoption of Resolution 2817. The overwhelming support – reflected in… pic.twitter.com/lPZbLEJtZV

— UAE Mission to the UN (@UAEMissionToUN) March 11, 2026

These are not symbolic gestures. The GCC states have demonstrated extraordinary restraint up to this point. The UAE intercepted over 1,000 projectiles in twelve days. Qatar shot down 63 of 65 ballistic missiles in a single night. Kuwait absorbed strikes that killed civilians, including children. The patience with which these governments have responded to outright acts of war against their citizens is remarkable — and it cannot last indefinitely.

The resolution passed with 135 co-sponsors. That figure, announced by U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz, tells you something about how the rest of the world is reading this moment. It isn’t complicated. Iran fired missiles at airports, hotels, oil refineries, and residential neighborhoods in countries that had explicitly told Tehran their territories would not be used to attack Iran. Tehran hit them anyway. The response from the international community, by historic standards, has been swift and damning.

There is also, and this is worth saying clearly, a scenario in which the Iranian people do some of the work here themselves. Regimes that launch wars they are losing, while their citizens pay the price in sanctions, isolation, and missile-fire-induced blowback, do not always survive the reckoning. The Islamic Republic has suppressed internal dissent before. Whether it can continue to do so while simultaneously managing a military campaign, diplomatic pariah status, and the fury of every neighboring country is a different question.

There is hope that this moment can open a path towards a free Iran. That is what the Iranian people deserve : freedom, dignity, and the right to decide their own future. But allow me to make one important point. Seeing the world as it is in no way diminishes our determination… pic.twitter.com/RT9xynf4x4 — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 11, 2026

There is hope that this moment can open a path towards a free Iran.

That is what the Iranian people deserve : freedom, dignity, and the right to decide their own future.

But allow me to make one important point.

Seeing the world as it is in no way diminishes our determination… pic.twitter.com/RT9xynf4x4

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 11, 2026

The Gulf states remember. The Arab League secretary-general’s comment that Iran had made a strategic mistake was not just a diplomatic talking point. It was a verdict. The Islamic Republic, in its rage, has done more to legitimize American military operations in the Middle East than Washington could have managed through a decade of patient alliance-building.

Pakistan has made its stance clear regarding the potential widening of the crisis. In a conversation with Bloomberg TV, Mosharraf Zaidi, the spokesperson for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, reaffirmed Islamabad’s enduring commitment to Saudi Arabia, stressing that their relationship has always been built on mutual support. He clarified that Pakistan’s readiness to assist Riyadh isn’t a new policy born from current tensions, but rather a guiding principle that has influenced their ties for many years.

As the Iran conflict escalates, Pakistan’s longstanding defense pact with Saudi Arabia is under renewed scrutiny. On Insight with @haslindatv, Mosharraf Zaidi, the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Spokesperson for Foreign Media, stresses that Pakistan’s support for Riyadh is… pic.twitter.com/Jqxov4n65d — Bloomberg (@business) March 11, 2026

As the Iran conflict escalates, Pakistan’s longstanding defense pact with Saudi Arabia is under renewed scrutiny. On Insight with @haslindatv, Mosharraf Zaidi, the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Spokesperson for Foreign Media, stresses that Pakistan’s support for Riyadh is… pic.twitter.com/Jqxov4n65d

— Bloomberg (@business) March 11, 2026

In the end, the fallout from this crisis highlights a key point of our time: Iran’s miscalculation, combined with the oppressive nature of its regime and its treatment of its own citizens, has rallied much of the world against it. What Tehran intended as a show of strength has instead led to an unprecedented level of diplomatic isolation. The irony is clear: the very campaign intended to demonstrate strength has left Tehran more isolated than at any time in recent history.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)