By Maha El Dahan and Andrew Mills
DUBAI, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Four Arab states conducted intense diplomacy with the United States and Iran this week to prevent a threatened U.S. attack on Iran over Tehran’s use of force against protesters that they feared would have impacts across the region, a Gulf official said.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Egypt were involved in the diplomacy over 48 hours before U.S. President Donald Trump signalled on Thursday that he had ultimately decided against an attack for now, saying the killings in Iran were easing.
The four countries had conveyed to Washington that any attack would have consequences for the wider region in terms of both security and economics that would ultimately impact the United States itself, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
They told Iran that any retaliatory attack it launched on U.S. facilities in the Gulf would have consequences for Tehran’s relations with other countries in the region, the official added.
Saudi Arabia’s international media office, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, Oman’s Information Ministry and Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Foreign Ministry of the United Arab Emirates, which was not involved in the diplomacy described by the official, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it had engaged in any diplomacy on the issue.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman had lobbied Washington against an attack.
The official said that the diplomatic efforts had focused on toning down the rhetoric and avoiding any military action that could spark wider regional instability and that this diplomacy could ultimately lead to talks on the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.
While Oman and Qatar had mediated in disputes between Iran and the West, U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt have had far more fraught relations with the revolutionary Shi’ite Muslim power.
However, after decades of Iranian-Saudi rivalry that fuelled conflict and political disputes across the region, the two countries agreed a detente in 2023, with Riyadh keen to focus on its economic priorities.
Gulf states are fearful that U.S. military facilities in their countries could be caught in any Iranian retaliation to U.S. attacks, and that the energy facilities underpinning the regional economy could also end up being targeted.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have enjoyed strong relationships with the Trump administration. Qatar and Egypt were both closely involved with the U.S. in mediation over the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Andrew Mills; Additional reporting by Timour Azhari in Riyadh and Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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