The Gulf Six Meet Trump With 'Two Fears: More War and Less US Protection'
The six Gulf monarchs’ collective audience with Mr Trump was due late today — the wire framing capturing their bind: fear of escalation and fear of abandonment, seven months into a war that has struck Saudi cities, closed both straits at various points, and seen Washington twice load and unload its bombers. The G7’s overnight demand that Iran stop arming the Houthis set the table; Iran’s Hormuz offer, hours before, reshuffled it.
The Gulf’s ask has inverted since February: then it was restraint — keep the war off our soil; now, with Riyadh under air-raid alerts and the Houthis on Bab el-Mandeb, it is commitment — and the six arrive knowing the president called off strikes on their behalf twice, met their enemy’s proxies in Muscat, and priced their protection in his UN speech as something allies should “reimburse”. Iran’s reopening offer complicates their pitch perfectly: a diplomatic track that trades blockade relief for strait access serves Gulf economies’ deepest interest while sidelining their demand for Houthi rollback — peace at the straits, war on their border. Watch the readout’s language on Yemen specifically — Hormuz will get the communiqué; whether Kahboub does tells the kingdom what its protection is worth.