Gulf petromonarchies seek to strengthen regional cooperation, from Gulf to Levant - L'Orient Today

Gulf petromonarchies seek to strengthen regional cooperation, from the Gulf to the Levant, with the East-West pipeline linking the Gulf to the Red Sea via Yanbu described as a potential strategic corridor that could connect the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean and transform geopolitical and economic balances.

The article notes this could transform geopolitical and economic balances.

As foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries met Thursday in Riyadh, Iran launched missiles toward the Saudi capital.

The Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud (on the right), and his Qatari counterpart, Mohammad bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, attended the consultative ministerial meeting in Riyadh, on March 19, 2026.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan sharply criticized the move and asked, 'What kind of madness are you engaging in? We are holding a meeting for you and to stop the war; do you want to target us and widen the conflict by involving new countries?'

The Gulf countries, among Iran's main targets since the start of the war, are particularly angered and are threatening a military response.

The war is reinforcing Gulf views of the need to build a cohesive Arab alliance to confront both Iranian and Israeli ambitions in the region.

For them, this means moving beyond longstanding divisions and internal sensitivities.

Many assumptions have been upended.