PORTLAND - Persian Gulf Arabs, what are your unelected rulers scared of? They have put all their eggs in the US basket and are ineptly trying to protect their ill-gotten wealth and to cling onto power. Instead of subservience to neo-colonialists such as the US, they should stand tall and work only to benefit you and your future generations.

Simply said, your rulers know no shame. They have afforded the United States a myriad of military bases in the region. In Bahrain there is a naval base that is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and the US Navy’s Central Command (NAVCENT). In Kuwait there is a significant US Army base for regional military operations and an air base for supplying troops and supplies. In Qatar there is the Al Udeid air base, the largest US military base in the region and the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) headquarters with over 10,000 troops, fighter and surveillance planes and sophisticated radars. In the United Arab Emirates, a top-of-the-line, US air base with the highest number of intelligence warning systems around. And finally, in Saudi Arabia, although there is no official US base so as not to invite domestic anger, there are a few thousand US military and intelligence advisors. All of these bases and American military personnel are “supposedly” to protect you while costing you hundreds of billions of dollars.

Unfortunately, the most recent gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders in Doha on September 15 was a repeat of the past—bombastic rhetoric and empty threatsAnd that’s not all. Your six countries that formed the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981 in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution have directed much of your oil and natural gas revenues to the United States—as investments, purchases of military equipment and support services, preferential business arrangements for US corporations and donations to US universities and other non-profits. These revenues (derived from the sale of your natural resources) are the rightful heritage of ALL your citizens and your future generations and you are largely squandering them away. These revenues from the extraction of your depletable oil, gas and minerals should not be handed over to the benefit of foreigners and for the lavish lifestyles of your rulers. Your rulers have by and large allowed the US free access to your airspace for reconnaissance and military operations and toed the US line in international institutions. All in all, the countries of the GCC are America’s allies in name but subservient in fact. 

The United States has received financial, economic and strategic benefits from the GCC and has used its numerous regional bases to dominate the entire neighborhood for its own benefit and the benefit of its surrogate—Israel.

What have the GCC and other Arabs gotten in return?

Not much. Protection from outside aggression? Hardly! Israel brazenly attacked a residential house in Doha in order to assassinate Hamas leaders, regardless of collateral damage, individuals who were official guests of Qatar and involved in negotiations. But it gets worse. Not only did the United States not attempt to protect its host from foreign incursion but it did the opposite, it turned off the sophisticated radars it had sold to Qatar and gave the Israelis a toll-free open highway! Alert systems from Kuwait and Bahrain were not operating. Other US eyes in Jordan and Saudi Arabia were “blind.” The AWACS flying over the Persian Gulf did not alert Qatar. British planes cooperated by refueling Israeli planes in midair! Israel attacked Qatar’s sovereignty with US approval and support from the UK, the world’s paramount colonialist. In the process, Israel trashed the basic tenet of the UN charter, aided by both the United States and the United Kingdom! Two Permanent UNSC members helping a brazen attack on a sovereign nation? What about the international rule of law? What kind of a world are these two powers creating?

In the aftermath of the illegal attack in Doha, the Israeli Prime Minister added insult to injury by vowing to continue more such incursions to get all of Hamas anywhere and everywhere. In the process, is he inciting ever more acts of violence by empowering Palestinians and their sympathizers to do the same? 

After all this, President Trump could only praise Qatar as a great ally and merely advised Israel to be very careful, saying actions against Hamas must be balanced! The usual meaningless placating words.

Israel is no longer subservient to the US but the US has become subservient to Israel.

What can the GCC, Arab and Muslim countries do?

Not only did the United States not attempt to protect its host from foreign incursion but it did the opposite, it turned off the sophisticated radars it had sold to Qatar and gave the Israelis a toll-free open highway!There are many escalating steps that they can take to put an end to their subservience and humiliation and restore a more peaceful region where rogue states are not able to threaten and destabilize them and outside powers cannot divide, dominate or profit from them. If the United States sees more resolve on the part of the GCC and other Arabs and Muslims, then maybe it will act to reverse years of injustice before it takes even more dire steps. 

I am a realist and not a peacenik. If countries crave respect, they must show resolve that sometimes includes firmness and the assumption of risk to achieve their goals. Compare what the Zionists have gotten from the US Congress and President over the years with comparatively little money and what the GCC has gotten with its billions. Zionists are firm and ruthless using their money to get what they want, but Gulf Arabs not so much. Sadly, Qatar even gave a luxury Boeing 747 to Trump and Trump paid them back by enabling Israel’s attack on Doha! For shame!

The GCC has made many reasonable demands that have been brushed under the rug for years by the United States with many of its Western allies.

- First and for immediate implementation, demand an end to US vetoes at the UNSC and to threats to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its justices to protect Israeli transgression that include the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands with the subhuman treatment of Palestinians all over the occupied territories; no more overt or covert support for Israeli aggression against Arab countries in the region and no violation of GCC territory or airspace to attack any country, or enable any country to do the same, without explicit permission from the country whose land and airspace would be encroached upon.

- Second, and within a period of one to two years, establish a treaty among the Arab countries of the region, Türkiye, Iran and Israel to transform the region to a nuclear free zone and lift the ominous threat of nuclear war, supported and signed by all UNSC permanent members. All regional countries, with the exception of Israel, have endorsed such a vision. If the US, the UK and France truly want a non-nuclear region and support nuclear non-proliferation, they could force Israel to accept such an eminently sensible future or be totally isolated. To further prevent regional hostilities, the footprint of US forces should be reduced as direct hostilities between the United States and one or more countries may spill over into other countries.

If the United States sees more resolve on the part of the GCC and other Arabs and Muslims, then maybe it will act to reverse years of injustice before it takes even more dire steps. - Third, and within two years, establish a sovereign Palestinian state, based on the 1967 borders or the Green Line, creating a contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

- Fourth, set up a commission to establish war compensation for the newly created Palestinian state for the pain and suffering as well as the physical damage resulting from Israel’s unabated aggression and destruction of most civilian infrastructure in Gaza and in the West Bank along with illegal land grabs by Israeli settlers. 

- Finally, state that if these reasonable demands are not met, then there are escalating steps that the GCC (hopefully supported by all Arab and Muslim countries) would take sequentially. Hopefully the first two and the threat of more to come should achieve their target:

- Breaking all ties to Israel

- Recalling their ambassadors to Washington

- Convening a regional forum to establish a regional security arrangement that includes Türkiye, Iraq, Iran, Jordan and Syria

- Closing all foreign bases in the GCC and in the rest of the Middle East.

Unfortunately, the most recent gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders in Doha on September 15 was a repeat of the past—bombastic rhetoric and empty threats with no concrete steps to rectify dire regional humanitarian disasters. The GCC rulers should act soon before their populations rebel and overthrow them, throwing the region into much more turmoil than ever before. Trump will cave if the GCC and Muslims countries could come together and present a united front demanding concrete steps. 

*The views expressed in this article are those of the writer

Hossein Askari is an emeritus professor of business and international affairs at George Washington University