Dan Al-Kurd

So I wanted to have you on today because, well, the war on Iran, but also because I think there's been a lot of reporting and some that's not very well sourced in mainstream media like the New York Times about the GCC states, GCC Gulf Cooperation Council, so the Arab Gulf states.

about their motivations and the actions of the Gulf states during this war.

I think that there's been a lot of obfuscation for a variety of reasons.

So I wanted to bring you on, given your expertise, to kind of clarify fact from fiction on some of that.

We're recording May 28th, so maybe people have seen this.

I want to talk about kind of how Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, you've already mentioned, differ on this issue, but also like how their differences speak to different visions for the region, especially vis-a-vis Israel.

But also just like before we get to that, there's been a lot of reporting about how Saudi Arabia is like secretly really gung-ho about the war.

and is encouraging the Trump administration to be more aggressive.

And just to be clear, they've paid the brunt of the price here.

And Iran has attacked civilian infrastructure and desalination plants and all those things.

Right.

But, you know, recently on social media and in a number of repeated statements, President Trump himself and his administration have talked about the Abraham Accords and normalization with Israel, tying it into possible outcomes for this war.

How do you explain that?

And so it's not just that they're worried about regional instability outside their borders.

It's also, like you said, there are domestic implications for all of these regimes.

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but during the first Trump administration, the propaganda around Palestinians emerging from the UAE was extremely vehement.

to an Arab audience.

And even though you're right that they are clinging more than ever to the Abraham Accords, again, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that like they can't do that as much anymore.

I'm not seeing as much of that kind of rhetoric and kind of anti-Palestinian racism that I used to see.

Yeah, and to stay adhering to the Arab Peace Initiative in some capacity.