Iran’s retaliation is forcing Gulf nations into a stark choice: Stay out or join the fight

As Gulf state leaders gathered in a Riyadh hotel this week to discuss the growing Middle East war, strikes from Tehran blasted outside. Iran was sending a clear message, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said.

“The attack was timed to coincide with this meeting,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told NBC News. “To intimidate those present. To send home the message that Iran will not stop.”

As the war drags into a third week, Persian Gulf states are being increasingly bombarded with retaliatory strikes from a defiant Iran, caught in the middle of the war initiated by the U.S. and Israel for which President Donald Trump has offered shifting rationales and a changing timeline. It’s forcing Gulf nations into a stark decision: whether or not to join the fight.

During the meeting in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday with representatives from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Syria,

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