Iran23 September, 20262 min read
Trump Meets Gulf Arab Leaders in New York as Iran War Widens
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Gulf Arab leaders meet Trump in New York amid fears of war and reduced protection. They previously persuaded him to back off escalation.
CNN was read line by line by the Watchdog: 6.4. See the score →
Trump, Gulf leaders, Iran
President Trump met Gulf Arab leaders in New York on Tuesday as the Iran war and the fight between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia in Yemen widened, forcing Gulf states to reassess U.S. security guarantees. Trump told reporters he intended to keep pressure on Iran, saying, “We’re completely isolating Iran financially, and we’re just putting the pressure on because hopefully they’ll do the right thing fast before it’s too late,” and he left open the possibility of ramping up military action.
Trump also told reporters he would could either strike a deal with Iran or annihilate the country, as the meeting expanded beyond Persian Gulf officials to include President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, President Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria, and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Analyst Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for Middle East policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies based in Bahrain, said the Gulf states had signaled a preference for de-escalation and diplomacy with Iran, but “not at any cost,” for Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. at least.
Fears of escalation, less protection
Gulf leaders met Trump in New York on Tuesday with two fears, more war and less U.S. protection, as Washington weighed whether to “annihilate” Iran’s regime. Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran analyst at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, wrote on X that the meeting “could be one of the most important diplomatic meetings of this phase of the conflict,” and he framed the central question as how Washington views “renewed escalation and a diplomatic off-ramp.”
CNN said Gulf leaders feared being drawn deeper into the war while Washington sought an exit, and the reporting tied that anxiety to Iranian proxies targeting Saudi energy infrastructure from Yemen and Iraq. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said the two sides agreed on the need to “turn the page,” but he warned that rebuilding trust could take decades and that dialogue must be paired with deterrence.
What Gulf states ask next
Gulf Cooperation Council officials accused Iran of attacking Saudi, Qatari and Emirati tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and demanded unconditional freedom of navigation through the waterway. Hasan Alhasan said Gulf leaders were likely to ask Trump for hardened security guarantees even as the Iran war had depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles, and he linked that pressure to spiraling conflicts.
Bader al-Saif, an assistant professor of history at Kuwait University, told CNN that Gulf leaders would only be able to persuade Trump if they spoke with “one united voice” and brought him “very, very specific asks,” while Telemundo’s live segment placed the meeting during the UN General Assembly. The New York Times reported that Trump told reporters he intended to keep pressure on Iran and left open the possibility of ramping up military action, as the summit’s wider roster included leaders from Turkey, Syria, and Jordan.