Andrew Leber
The Middle East Program in Washington combines in-depth regional knowledge with incisive comparative analysis to provide deeply informed recommendations. With expertise in the Gulf, North Africa, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, we examine crosscutting themes of political, economic, and social change in both English and Arabic.Learn More
The past few weeks have been busy for diplomats of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) monarchies, which have successively criticized Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, expressed concern over U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, and condemned Iran’s missile strike on a Qatari military base that hosts U.S. forces.
Amid this flurry of activity, a throughline among Gulf-state responses has been a desire to keep clear of an Israeli-Iranian conflict that stands to define regional geopolitics for the near future. However, even as Israel now rivals Iran as a source of regional instability in the eyes of many GCC officials, different states are taking different approaches to manage the resulting sense of anxiety.
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, for example, has sought refuge in the eye of the storm, attempting to maintain good ties with all sides through active diplomatic engagement. This continues both the country’s longstanding efforts to be a broker between the United States and a revolving cast of regional actors, and its more specific balancing act in U.S.-Israel-Hamas negotiations over a potential ceasefire.
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