WPR (World Politics Review)
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The War With Iran Put Israel’s Ties With the Arab World to the Test
Frida Ghitis
Jun 26, 2025June 26, 2025
The War With Iran Put Israel’s Ties With the Arab World to the Test
The flags of the United Arab Emirates and Israel fly side by side during a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 31, 2022 (AP photo by Jon Gambrell).
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The war between Israel and Iran was a test of the relations between Israel and the handful of Arab countries with which it maintains diplomatic ties. The conflict created tensions for the pioneers of Arab-Israeli peace, Jordan and Egypt, the signatories of the recent Abraham Accords and even for Arab states that do not have formal links with Israel but pursue quiet connections.
Ultimately, however, it has confirmed the resilience of these seemingly fragile relationships. By all indications, and despite a measure of public acrimony, ties between Israel and those Arab countries have passed this stress test.
Israel’s Arab neighbors walked a fine line as they watched Iran, a country whose regime they rightly view as a source of regional instability, take a beating at the hands of Israel and the United States, two countries many of their people don’t trust and a considerable number despise.
In the Middle East, most if not all Arab governments would be happy to see Iran’s theocratic Shiite regime leave the scene. They would certainly be thrilled to see the end of Iran’s nuclear program. The last thing they want is a regime that has fomented so much regional destabilization in possession of a doomsday weapon. But the outcome of this war, as with any war, was uncertain. So, at the same time, they feared the political instability and economic consequences of both a wider conflict and potential chaos inside Iran. And looming above it all was fear of retaliation by Tehran if it perceived that its Arab neighbors betrayed it while it came under fire.
As a result, Arab leaders moved cautiously. Many, if not all, publicly condemned Israel’s attack, while saying little if anything about the U.S. intervention and scrambling to restart diplomacy between Tehran and Washington. Some quietly supported the military campaign against Iran.
A few days after Israel launched its first massive wave of attacks against Iran’s nuclear installations on June 13, an ad hoc group of 21 Arab and Muslim nations issued a joint statement expressing their “categorical rejection and condemnation” of Israel and calling for negotiations. But beneath the strongly worded rebuke, there was a nuanced reaction in the Arab world, and even in the larger Muslim world. Notably, the 21 countries amounted to well less than half and closer to a third of the world’s Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
Among the signatories was Jordan, literally caught in the crossfire between Israel and Iran. Jordan’s population is seething at Israel over the situation in Gaza. But Jordanians have little love for Iran, whose machinations have contributed to regional chaos, including dictatorship in Syria and disaster in Lebanon, with dire reverberations in the kingdom. Only about one-in-four Jordanians have a favorable view of Iran, according to a recent poll. But the sentiment against Israel is much stronger.
While its government condemned Israel, the Jordanian military shot down Iranian missiles over its airspace. But it repeatedly claimed to be acting to protect Jordanians from strikes that were falling short of their intended targets in Israel, rather than to help its neighbor.
If Iran’s nuclear program has been destroyed, as Trump claimed, even the Arab states that condemned Israel most forcefully at the beginning of this conflict will smile at its outcome.
Egypt also signed the letter of condemnation, but President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said nothing publicly about the conflict. The first Arab country to make peace with Israel, Egypt has also been improving ties with Tehran in recent years. But its reliance on U.S. support remains uppermost on the regime’s mind.
Saudi Arabia, a pivotal player, also signed the anti-Israel communique, but behind the scenes things were less clear. The Saudis and Iran have a longstanding rivalry, but in recent years they have established diplomatic relations and developed friendlier ties. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, also has a close and influential relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Days before Israel launched its bombing campaign, the Times of London reported that Riyadh had agreed to allow Israeli bombers to use its airspace to strike Iran.
Instead, Israel reportedly flew over Syria—whose interim government kept completely silent about the conflict—and Iraq, while avoiding the Gulf detour and the direct route over Jordan.
Most intriguing was the reaction of Israel’s newest Arab friends, the parties to the 2020 Abraham Accords, whose most prominent member is the United Arab Emirates.
Above all, the UAE, Israel’s closest friend in the Arab world, wants stability in order to keep its economy—based on strong foreign investment, trade and tourism—growing. The prospect of a lengthy and wider war threatened to derail its prosperous path.
In the long run, the UAE would prefer a different regime in Iran, one that creates less regional strife and certainly one without a nuclear weapon. Interestingly, despite the UAE’s good relations with Iran at the government level, Emiratis themselves have little love for their neighbor across the Gulf. A 2023 survey found 55 percent of Emiratis view Iran as an “enemy,” with a large majority agreeing “somewhat” that the UAE should help Israel counter the threat from Iran.
But as one of the few Arab governments to have diplomatic ties with both Israel and Iran, the UAE sees itself as a potential bridge. In fact, the ability to influence Israel for the benefit of the region was one of the UAE’s justifications for its then-controversial decision to establish diplomatic relations in 2020. True to that sentiment, Abu Dhabi sought to find a diplomatic solution to the stop the war.
Another Abraham Accord member, Morocco, stayed away from the joint Arab-Muslim statement condemning Israel and remained silent about the conflict. Iran has stood on the opposite side of issues of great importance to Morocco, supporting its regional rival Algeria and backing the Polisario Front in the contest over Western Sahara.
Bahrain, the other Arab country with diplomatic relations with Israel, condemned the Israeli strikes, urging restraint and de-escalation.
In the end, however, it fell to Qatar to act as a bridge. Although Qatar doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, the two countries have long maintained low-key but active ties, with Qatar serving as a mediator between Israel and Hamas in talks to reach a ceasefire in Gaza. And Doha has strong ties to Iran.
Qatar also hosts the massive U.S. military base, Al Udeid, that Tehran targeted with its telegraphed missile strikes following the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Though Qatar publicly treated the missile attack as a hostile action, Iran had given early notice about the intended targets, making clear the riposte was simply a face-saving move to allow Tehran to accept an end to the war. Qatar then acted as the key mediator for the ceasefire that came only hours later.
For the 12 days the war lasted, Arab countries walked the tightrope. Like everyone else, they are anxious to see the condition in which Iran’s nuclear program emerges from the campaign. If it has been destroyed, as Trump claimed, even the states that condemned Israel most forcefully at the beginning of this conflict will smile at its outcome.
Frida Ghitis is WPR’s senior columnist and a contributor to CNN and The Washington Post. Her WPR column appears every Thursday. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads at @fridaghitis.
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