Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has offered firm advice to Gulf nations, urging them to remove the conditions that are making the regional war inevitable by denying US and Israeli forces access to their territory. His message, issued more than a month into the conflict, reframes the war not as a purely bilateral dispute but as a regional problem with regional solutions. Tehran appears to be encouraging Gulf governments to see themselves as agents of peace rather than passive hosts of a foreign military campaign.
Gulf nations including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman have been caught in the conflict through the American military presence embedded in their territories. Iranian retaliatory strikes against those nations have compounded the instability caused by the war. The accumulating costs are forcing Gulf governments to reckon with the long-term implications of their current security arrangements.
Pezeshkian communicated clearly on X that Iran’s military approach is reactive, not aggressive, but that retaliation for attacks on Iranian infrastructure or economic centres will be powerful and inevitable. He urged Gulf leaders to take responsibility for ending the cycle of violence by denying enemy forces the ability to direct the war from their land. The appeal was rooted in a logic of regional shared interest that was both compelling and diplomatically sophisticated.
Pakistan’s diplomatic engagement has been one of the defining features of the international response to the conflict, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif playing a leading role. Sharif’s meeting with Pezeshkian confirmed that Iran sees trust as the essential foundation for any formal peace process. Pakistan’s approach has been publicly praised by Tehran, reinforcing Islamabad’s credibility as a mediator.
A multilateral diplomatic gathering in Pakistan is assembling senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey for in-depth discussions on the conflict. Their meetings with Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Prime Minister Sharif aim to develop a unified regional approach to de-escalating the war. The talks represent a significant diplomatic opportunity and could prove to be a turning point in the search for peace.