Arab Gulf states… a strategic victory without war

[_Arabia_]

Iranians are big mouths , they make insane claims.....they were badass madman of the region , threatening every country....they were saying ! If you Arabs stay out of our conflict with Israel and America we will deal with them....Arab and few other countries said ! Ok buddy , the arena is all yours , you don't have to worry about us , we will stay out of it.....these conceited idiots had the balls to launch missiles against Pakistan.

Somehow the "geniuses" on this forum, consider it some kind of achievement to launch a few missiles and drones (most of which were intercepted) at tiny GCC states and mostly empty hotels, empty US bases or even civilian areas. Imagine KSA launching drones and ballistic missiles at Eritrea or even Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE and hailing this as some kind of tactical genius.

Iran did not even remotely win anything. Their only card that they could play (which I have always talked about long before June 2025) was to take the oil and gas infrastructure in the region (which impacts global economy hugely - an example of the word stronghold for @VCheng ) was to threaten mutual destruction of exactly that. Which did not take any genius to do. Once again, the Qatari Air Force alone has the capability to destroy either single oil and gas field installation in the region, Iran included.

It is also self-evident for any person with a room temperature IQ that the GCC has far more to lose materially and economically (seeing that we are some of the wealthiest economies out there) than a sanctioned, impoverished Iran with a worthless currency and not much to lose.

It was also painfully obvious that you cannot "win" a war by just conducting an air campaign alone as the US and Israel did. Their hope was for the Iranian people to rebel against the regime but that did not occur and often does not occur when your country is attacked. Not to mention that in January 2026 alone the Iranian regime killed 1000's of their own people (protestors) and not to mention that the Iranian regime and the IRGC runs every corner of Iran and is deeply embedded in the country across the board.

Also it quite probably, frankly speaking, suits not only the GCC but also the US and Israel, that this incompetent (largely) Iranian regime survives, even in a weakened state, rather than a sane regime emerging. Albeit a prosperous Iran would also suit the GCC greatly next door due to mutual massive trade etc.

You can view this as the France-Germany relationship. Now the largest trade partners if I am not wrong.

At one point in time this region of the world will have to move towards pragmatism and focus on economic growth and leave the rest behind. Either that or they will perish with the GCC (unless wars, conflicts etc. disrupt this) being the only succesfull island in the ocean with Turkiye a bit further away from that island.

Anyway I am more interested in renewables nowadays, reforestation, nature and animal preservation and conservationism in KSA.

Which is why such news is very promising:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

KSA reestablished/reforested, quite recently, an area the size of Lebanon.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

1 million hectares equals the size of Lebanon almost. Lebanon has a total land area of about 1,045,200 hectares.

Eh?

I hope you know that STRONGhold and STRANGLEhold are two different words!

I know but in this case they can both be applied. Having the largest combined oil and gas reserves in the world is quite a stranglehold to have economically. It is also an stronghold in terms of oil and gas reserves.

Actually Iran's only playing card (threatening to destroy the region's oil and gas infrastructure) confirms the theory.

Because I highly doubt that the world would be talking about a huge recession, gas, oil shortages, fertilizer shortages etc. if the GCC was not exactly that, a gas, oil etc. stronghold and that any party threatening to destroy/disrupt this (if we include the Iranian oil and gas the point becomes even more clear - in case of GCC oil and gas infrastructure destruction - the GCC would have destroyed the Iranian gas and oil infrastructure - KSA and UAE already targeted Iranian oil and gas installations as a tit for that).

 

[mythbuster]

Somehow the "geniuses" on this forum, consider it some kind of achievement to launch a few missiles and drones (most of which were intercepted) at tiny GCC states and mostly empty hotels, empty US bases or even civilian areas. Imagine KSA launching drones and ballistic missiles at Eritrea or even Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE and hailing this as some kind of tactical genius.

Iran did not even remotely win anything. Their only card that they could play (which I have always talked about long before June 2025) was to take the oil and gas infrastructure in the region (which impacts global economy hugely - an example of the word stronghold for @VCheng ) was to threaten mutual destruction of exactly that. Which did not take any genius to do. Once again, the Qatari Air Force alone has the capability to destroy either single oil and gas field installation in the region, Iran included.

It is also self-evident for any person with a room temperature IQ that the GCC has far more to lose materially and economically (seeing that we are some of the wealthiest economies out there) than a sanctioned, impoverished Iran with a worthless currency and not much to lose.

It was also painfully obvious that you cannot "win" a war by just conducting an air campaign alone as the US and Israel did. Their hope was for the Iranian people to rebel against the regime but that did not occur and often does not occur when your country is attacked. Not to mention that in January 2026 alone the Iranian regime killed 1000's of their own people (protestors) and not to mention that the Iranian regime and the IRGC runs every corner of Iran and is deeply embedded in the country across the board.

Also it quite probably, frankly speaking, suits not only the GCC but also the US and Israel, that this incompetent (largely) Iranian regime survives, even in a weakened state, rather than a sane regime emerging. Albeit a prosperous Iran would also suit the GCC greatly next door due to mutual massive trade etc.

You can view this as the France-Germany relationship. Now the largest trade partners if I am not wrong.

At one point in time this region of the world will have to move towards pragmatism and focus on economic growth and leave the rest behind. Either that or they will perish with the GCC (unless wars, conflicts etc. disrupt this) being the only succesfull island in the ocean with Turkiye a bit further away from that island.

Anyway I am more interested in renewables nowadays, reforestation, nature and animal preservation and conservationism in KSA.

Which is why such news is very promising:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

View attachment 202147

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

View attachment 202148

KSA reestablished/reforested, quite recently, an area the size of Lebanon.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

View attachment 202149

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

1 million hectares equals the size of Lebanon almost. Lebanon has a total land area of about 1,045,200 hectares.

If you keep on increasing your green growth it may change the weather pattern in the long run....the rivers may start flowing again.

 

[_Arabia_]

Well, the facts show that Gulf States provided material support to the Iran war with bases and free use of their airspace. That is the reality.

Pretending otherwise is what is dishonest.

Was it dishonest by Iran to aid proxies that directly attacked KSA such as the Houthis.

Look at it this way. In this conflict/war (I would rather call it an air campaign as the US and Israel did nothing else than that), we could argue that the anti-Iranian regime GCC leadership could see/viewed the US and Israel as their proxies, in regards to weakening the Iranian regime and they kind of did a good job of it so far with this unlikely to end anytime soon.

I think that they will attack again.

 

[mythbuster]

Well, the facts show that Gulf States provided material support to the Iran war with bases and free use of their airspace. That is the reality.

Pretending otherwise is what is dishonest.

Why shouldn't they provide material support?

 

[mythbuster]

Was it dishonest by Iran to aid proxies that directly attacked KSA such as the Houthis.

Look at it this way. In this conflict/war (I would rather call it an air campaign as the US and Israel did nothing else than that), we could argue that the anti-Iranian regime GCC leadership could see/viewed the US and Israel as their proxies, in regards to weakening the Iranian regime and they kind of did a good job of it so far with this unlikely to end anytime soon.

I think that they will attack again.

Nah , Iran has learnt her lesson the hard ways... it's fully tamed now .

 

[The SC]

Well, the facts show that Gulf States provided material support to the Iran war with bases and free use of their airspace. That is the reality.

Pretending otherwise is what is dishonest.

What is dishonest is the ignorance of the real facts..Where all the GCC opposed the war and the use of their territories to attack Iran..this is well documented..and even when Iran attacked the US bases..they did not help in the US - Israeli attacks on Iran.. But when the latter started attacking their own infrastructures in an attempt to drag them to the war..they started defending themselves by all means at their disposal..

 

[_Arabia_]

If you keep on increasing your green growth it may change the weather pattern in the long run....the rivers may start flowing again.

There are 1000's of seasonal wadis (non-permanent rivers in KSA). Many of them are flowing throughout the year, in particular after floods and torrential rains but none of the, outside of small mountain streams are permanent all year round. Studies have already shown that the increasing green cover in many Saudi Arabian cities have decreased summer temperatures (which are the main problem - rest of the year the weather is absolutely fantastic for the most part) and increased rainfall.

Actually not many 1000's of years ago Arabia was very fertile and green. There are still huge agricultural areas in KSA that rely on huge groundwater reserves (ancient acquirers) but also somewhat sufficient rainfall.

Saudi Arabia's vast desert was once a lush, green paradise

A new study reconstructing the Arabian Peninsula’s ancient past adds clues to how early humans left the African continent.

www.nationalgeographic.com

That is why you have some of the oldest neolithic and ancient cultures/civilizations found in KSA such as Al-Magar.

The climate was very different back then.

Al-Magar - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In fact, at the time of Prophet Muhammad (saws) you have amble geographical descriptions of how the environment looked. Not to mention that hunting and killing Arabian lions was a passage into adulthood - one of the many.

For instance the last wild lions in KSA were killed around 100 years ago. Many species, some brought back recently into the wild, died out in the past 50-60 years due to increased grazing on farmland, grasslands, population growth, urbanization, human stupidity (cutting down trees without replanting). Many examples disappeared other than lions such as cheetahs (recently introduced with new births in KSA recently), Arabian leopard was on the brink of extinction but luckily has survived and is increasing in numbers in KSA, Arabian oryx, Arabian ostriches (completely extinct), Saudi Arabian gazelle (believed to be extinct) etc.

For a fauna to keep lions and other large predators around you need a rich fauna and environment.

Also population growth, grazing etc. has destroyed grasslands and increased desertification. As well as cutting down trees and using it as firewood.

In the proper deserts, hardly anyone lives to begin with, it is just a wild wilderness for the most part with the Rub' al-Khali being the greatest example of this.

 

[Watandar]

What is dishonest is the ignorance of the real facts..Where the all the GCC opposed the war and the use of their territories to attack Iran..this is well documented..and even when Iran attacked the US bases..they did not help in the US Israeli attacks on Iran..But when the latter started attacking their own infrastructure in an attempt to drag them to the war..they started defending themselves by all means at their disposal..

GCC staged and encouraged the Iran war for decades, believing it would be like all other conflicts that it had partnered with the West in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Palestine etc in that the violence would all be abroad and never touch them.

In pursuit of this goal to use Israel/America to further the GCC aim of neutering Iran and establishing themselves as regionally dominant, not only were military bases and airspace provided but also intelligence, radar information and defending US / Israel from Iranian retaliation.

This made the GCC legitimate targets themselves and when Iran brought the war home, hitting US bases and the GCC's oil/gas golden goose, immediately the GCC backed off.

The utter stupidity of pampered GCC statelets has been globally exposed in this war and it is Iran that emerges as the regional hegemon.

With sanctions removed watch as Iran / Turkey rightfully emerge as the two strongest regional economies in the next 20 years.

 

[The SC]

Hey guys..let's keep On Topic..

 

[mythbuster]

There are 1000's of seasonal wadis (non-permanent rivers in KSA). Many of them are flowing throughout the year, in particular after floods and torrential rains but none of the, outside of small mountain streams are permanent all year round. Studies have already shown that the increasing green cover in many Saudi Arabian cities have decreased summer temperatures (which are the main problem - rest of the year the weather is absolutely fantastic for the most part) and increased rainfall.

Actually not many 1000's of years ago Arabia was very fertile and green. There are still huge agricultural areas in KSA that rely on huge groundwater reserves (ancient acquirers) but also somewhat sufficient rainfall.

Saudi Arabia's vast desert was once a lush, green paradise

A new study reconstructing the Arabian Peninsula’s ancient past adds clues to how early humans left the African continent.

www.nationalgeographic.com

That is why you have some of the oldest neolithic and ancient cultures/civilizations found in KSA such as Al-Magar.

The climate was very different back then.

Al-Magar - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In fact, at the time of Prophet Muhammad (saws) you have amble geographical descriptions of how the environment looked. Not to mention that hunting and killing Arabian lions was a passage into adulthood - one of the many.

For instance the last wild lions in KSA were killed around 100 years ago. Many species, some brought back recently into the wild, died out in the past 50-60 years due to increased grazing on farmland, grasslands, population growth, urbanization, human stupidity (cutting down trees without replanting). Many examples disappeared other than lions such as cheetahs (recently introduced with new births in KSA recently), Arabian leopard was on the brink of extinction but luckily has survived and is increasing in numbers in KSA, Arabian oryx, Arabian ostriches (completely extinct), Saudi Arabian gazelle (believed to be extinct) etc.

For a fauna to keep lions and other large predators around you need a rich fauna and environment.

Also population growth, grazing etc. has destroyed grasslands and increased desertification. As well as cutting down trees and using it as firewood.

In the proper deserts, hardly anyone lives to begin with, it is just a wild wilderness for the most part with the Rub' al-Khali being the greatest example of this.

Are you getting enough rainfall in the mountains to build dams and reservoirs ?

 

[_Arabia_]

What is dishonest is the ignorance of the real facts..Where all the GCC opposed the war and the use of their territories to attack Iran..this is well documented..and even when Iran attacked the US bases..they did not help in the US - Israeli attacks on Iran.. But when the latter started attacking their own infrastructures in an attempt to drag them to the war..they started defending themselves by all means at their disposal..

KSA/GCC likely did not instigate the conflict but I have no doubt that the GCC leaderships are not exactly crying because Iran received a beating with much of their leadership killed. The same leadership that was fiercely anti-KSA/GCC. Iran lost 10.000's of people, had most of their Navy and Air Force destroyed, much of their air defenses, suffered substantial infrastructural and industrial damage, damage on their oil and gas facilities etc.

Look, in a perfect world this would not have occurred but it was the Iranian regime that started the proxy wars in 1979 and they were the ones that acted hostile when KSA gave them an outstretched hand and tried to work jointly on shared interests.

Unfortunately revolutionary governments are not pragmatic and quite frankly not very clever (we just need to take a look at the state of Iran for the past 50 years) and they were not clever enough to realize that you can have a functioning relationship with global powers like the US and West while at the same time slowly building up your strength while pursing your interests as well as working with other powerful partners as KSA (in particular) and even smaller GCC states have done successfully.

And as we have seen, if the goal was to destroy Israel (which is stronger than ever and now occupies more land than ever) the goal failed tremendously here almost 50 years after. Same with removing the US from the region - they are more embedded than they ever were in 1979. Back when Shah's Iran was the greatest US ally in the region alongside Israel itself.

Not all means. KSA was hardly ever targeted. I believe that KSA and Iran reached an understanding early one and KSA probably warned Iran that if they made any significant damage on oil and gas infrastrucure in KSA, KSA would do the same to Iran. Seeing that oil and gas remains the livelihood (main) of the Iranian regime, they seem to have listened.

The question here is - did GCC suffer human, economic, infrastructural etc. damage even 1% of what Iran did? The answer is no. So the "winner" in this conflict is clear if there is any.

Now should KSA have provided logistical support for the US? That is another discussion altogether but after what the Iranian regime has been doing in several Arab nations since 1979 and their support for anti-KSA elements directly, I call this karma. Only sad thing is that innocent civilians had to die but the Iranians should know about all this seeing what they have been up to in the region since 1979.

?

Yes, KSA has almost 1000 dams. Most of the mountainous regions of KSA (more than half of the territory) gets enough of rainfall to have agriculture on a fairly large scale. Some areas of southern Hejaz and the Southern provinces in KSA (Najran, Asir, Al-Bahah, Jizan etc.) grow tropical fruits not found anywhere in the region such as bananas, mangos, pineapples, guava, coconut, coffee, tea and other "exotic" crops.

This is reflected in the local cuisine as well which is quite different from say Najdi, Eastern Arabian or Northern Arabian cuisine. Each region in KSA has their own unique cuisine, dresses, dialect, history etc. KSA in many ways is a confederation of various "states/historical entities". Not one monolith. Much like Pakistan but Pakistan has greater ethnic and linguistic diversity. Albeit Hejaz for instance is home to every ethnic group in the Muslim world (almost) and now those people are Saudi Arabians much like the Afro-Arabs and everyone else.

Then you have the divide between farmers, town folks, Bedouins etc. Then the tribal and clan divisions. Etc. But this is not unlike most large/historical/old areas of the planet. Nothing unique here albeit we might have held onto the traditions for much longer than most others but this has had both positives and negatives.

Covered the topic in the KSA development thread. We are a bit off-topic, so I will end it here. Don't want more trouble with the moderation team. They have a target on my head already. Take care.

 

[The SC]

GCC staged and encouraged the Iran war for decades, believing it would be like all other conflicts that it had partnered with the West in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Palestine etc in that the violence would all be abroad and never touch them.

In pursuit of this goal to use Israel/America to further the GCC aim of neutering Iran and establishing themselves as regionally dominant, not only were military bases and airspace provided but also intelligence, radar information and defending US / Israel from Iranian retaliation.

This made the GCC legitimate targets themselves and when Iran brought the war home, hitting US bases and the GCC's oil/gas golden goose, immediately the GCC backed off.

The utter stupidity of pampered GCC statelets has been globally exposed in this war and it is Iran that emerges as the regional hegemon.

With sanctions removed watch as Iran / Turkey rightfully emerge as the two strongest regional economies in the next 20 years.

Yes of course..you just forgot to say that was since the Persian empire.. but what you forgot is how they were visiting each other almost daily with high delegations coordinating the future of the gulf region before this war that was a purely Isreli-American war on Iran..

 

[mythbuster]

KSA/GCC likely did not instigate the conflict but I have no doubt that the GCC leaderships are not exactly crying because Iran received a beating with much of their leadership killed. The same leadership that was fiercely anti-KSA/GCC. Iran lost 10.000's of people, had most of their Navy and Air Force destroyed, much of their air defenses, suffered substantial infrastructural and industrial damage, damage on their oil and gas facilities etc.

Look, in a perfect world this would not have occurred but it was the Iranian regime that started the proxy wars in 1979 and they were the ones that acted hostile when KSA gave them an outstretched hand and tried to work jointly on shared interests.

Unfortunately revolutionary governments are not pragmatic and quite frankly not very clever (we just need to take a look at the state of Iran for the past 50 years) and they were not clever enough to realize that you can have a functioning relationship with global powers like the US and West while at the same time slowly building up your strength while pursing your interests as well as working with other powerful partners as KSA (in particular) and even smaller GCC states have done successfully.

And as we have seen, if the goal was to destroy Israel (which is stronger than ever and now occupies more land than ever) the goal failed tremendously here almost 50 years after. Same with removing the US from the region - they are more embedded than they ever were in 1979. Back when Shah's Iran was the greatest US ally in the region alongside Israel itself.

Not all means. KSA was hardly ever targeted. I believe that KSA and Iran reached an understanding early one and KSA probably warned Iran that if they made any significant damage on oil and gas infrastrucure in KSA, KSA would do the same to Iran. Seeing that oil and gas remains the livelihood (main) of the Iranian regime, they seem to have listened.

The question here is - did GCC suffer human, economic, infrastructural etc. damage even 1% of what Iran did? The answer is no. So the "winner" in this conflict is clear if there is any.

Now should KSA have provided logistical support for the US? That is another discussion altogether but after what the Iranian regime has been doing in several Arab nations since 1979 and their support for anti-KSA elements directly, I call this karma. Only sad thing is that innocent civilians had to die but the Iranians should know about all this seeing what they have been up to in the region since 1979.

Yes, KSA has almost 1000 dams. Covered the topic in the KSA development thread. We are a bit off-topic, so I will end it here. Don't want more trouble with the moderation team. They have a target on my head already. Take care.

Iranians , now , want to take shelter under the ummah umbrella...look like they will get the shelter...lo and behold , Iranian FM called the Kuwaiti counter part today and expressed the desire for regional solidarity.

 

[_Arabia_]

Iranians , now , want to take shelter under the ummah umbrella...look like they will get the shelter...lo and behold , Iranian FM called the Kuwaiti counter part today and expressed the desire for regional solidarity.

They always wanted that publicly - hiding under the cover of Islamic solidarity and the "Islamic" Revolution in 1979. In reality it was a fairly clever tactic to use the region's religiosity among a certain sect, to create obedient proxies that you could/can use as pawns on a chess board to expand your regional influence etc. Everything else is rhetoric.

Whatever you hear is just hot air. They are just coming to terms with the fact that their regional project, that stye have been working on for almost 50 years, is crashing down for all to see.

Now if that will force the new regime to act more sane - I am all for it. As I said, I have no animosity towards non-hostile Iranians. As I wrote before in this thread, we have influenced them tremendously historically (pre-Islam and during the Islamic era) and there are much shared in common not to mention people to people relations and intermarriages across both party lines.

KSA, UAE might be the outliner in the GCC nowadays, have no appetite for any proxy wars or any focus on that nowadays. The priority is economic growth, diversification, industrialization etc.

But only time will tell what is going to occur. KSA needs to prepare for every scenario and the leadership needs to examine all options and revaluate all relationships depending on what occurs.

 

[SteppeWolff]

It is going to be quite amusing to see when the reality sets slowly within the GCC. They have been clobbered by Iran and got duped by their so called Ally. And Iran will get a deal soon and will be more belligerent towards them. Fun times.