The Gulf Region and Israel

From the outset of his presidency Donald Trump sought to narrow differences between Israel and the six monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-Bahrain Kuwait Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-as part of his strategy to isolate Iran.With that objective in mind Trumps first visit abroad as president was to Riyadh in May 2017-where he addressed the U.S.-Arab-Islamic Summit-immediately followed by a visit to Israel.The Presidents message was clear: Saudi Arabia and Israel would serve as co-pillars of the U.S. security architecture for the broader Middle East. Under that vision Egypt Jordan and the six Gulf monarchies-together with Israel-would isolate Iran diplomatically. The second plank of this strategy was anchored in the so-called Maximum Pressure campaign which sought for all practical purposes to expedite the collapse of Irans economy as part of an effort to strengthen Washingtons standing vis-à-vis Tehran. The third plank focused on solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. These dynamics the Trump-administration reasoned would help set the stage for the renegotiation of the Iran agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.Trumps vision however faced immediate resistance-not from Iran or its regional proxies but rather from some of Washingtons very own Gulf partners when they imposed a blockade on Qatar only weeks after his Riyadh address. While the crisis between Saudi Arabia UAE Bahrain and Egypt over Qatar was initially understood in Washington as an inter-Arab dispute Sigurd Neubauer examines the overlooked and widely misunderstood Israeli and Omani roles in this feud.