Gulf states and Turkey warned Trump strikes on Iran could lead to major conflict

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Thu 15 Jan 2026 12.39 EST
Last modified on Thu 15 Jan 2026 15.11 EST


Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Oman urged Donald Trump not to launch airstrikes against Iran in a last-minute lobbying campaign prompted by fears that an attack by Washington would lead to a major and intractable conflict across the Middle East.

The warnings of chaos from the longstanding US allies appear to have helped persuade Trump late on Wednesday to hold off for the moment on a military assault. In the case of Saudi Arabia, its reticence led it to deny the US use of its airspace to mount any attacks. Continuing discussions, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, conferred by phone with his counterparts from Iran, Oman and Turkey on Thursday.

Iran remains politically apart from the Gulf states, partly owing to its continued support for its weakened network of regional proxies, known as the axis of resistance, and its refusal to back a two state-solution for Palestine as well as disputes over three islands in the Gulf claimed by the United Arab Emirates, a claim backed by the Gulf Cooperation Council. But Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has also undertaken a series of visits to Arab capitals that are said to have improved relations.

Last year, for instance, he visited Bahrain, the first Iranian minister to do since 2010. He also visited Cairo four times last year in an effort to improve relations. The two sides had severed diplomatic relations in 2016. The Saudi-Iranian relationship, once the most fraught in the Middle East, has been on a recovery path for three years. Araghchi makes a point of being photographed sampling local cuisine in the Arab capitals he visits. All the Gulf states are further aware of the disruption Iran could cause to maritime traffic in the Gulf.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/15/gulf-states-and-turkey-urged-trump-not-to-launch-strikes-against-iran

[Lovie777]

1. There is a war ship in route........

shithole thru that unqualified stupid jerk department of war person is pounding his chest.

[Norrrm]

2. That idiot Trump talks of putting boots on the ground. It will take a lot of boots.

Can he spare them from the Greenland battlefront?

[ClaudetteCC]

3. Its nice to see Europe stepping up to defend Greenland

but I wonder how much of the leader protestations against action in Iran is fear that if the Iranian's become free their own people will start looking at them with the same contempt.