Gulf states are bearing the brunt of Iran’s retaliation. Why not fight back?

Throughout its war with the US, Iran’s counteroffensive has largely been directed at the oil-rich Arab countries that border the Persian Gulf.

Iran has repeatedly targeted US assets and energy infrastructure in all six states that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

It’s come at great cost: the price tag for the oil refineries, power plants and other energy facilities damaged in the war could hit $58 billion, according to an April estimate from Rystad Energy, which doesn’t take into account the latest bout of fighting. This week, a key power and desalination plant in Kuwait was struck twice in two days.

More broadly, Iran’s attacks have also punctured confidence and security in the Gulf, disrupting tourism and air travel in a key global transport node, and prompting some expats to flee.

But while Gulf leaders have strongly condemned Iran’s attacks on their territory, they’ve stopped short of a military response.

That’s because, despite the mounting costs of the war, “further escalation with Iran would impose costs that these governments are unwilling to bear,” Hesham Sallam, senior research scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law told CNN.

“Gulf states have built much of their domestic and international legitimacy around ambitious visions of growth, investment, tourism, infrastructure development, and deeper integration into global markets,” Sallam said. “An intensified conflict with Iran could jeopardize the modernizing projects in which they have invested so heavily, both politically and financially.”

The Gulf states know that if they intervene, they will only prolong the war, said Ian Parmeter, Middle East expert and former Australian ambassador to Lebanon.

Unlike the US, which is thousands of miles away from Iran, the Gulf states “are very much aware that whatever happens in their future, they’re going to have Iran as a neighbor,” Parmeter told CNN.

“They’re going to have to live with Iran.”

-CNN