At the beginning of this year, Ahmed El-Deeb had everything a young professional could wish for. The 33-year-old Egyptian father of two enjoyed a comfortable life as an expatriate information technology professional in Saudi Arabia.
But the onset of the United States and Israel’s war with Iran upended his life. Months of Iranian attacks and repeated closures of the Strait of Hormuz rattled countries across the Arabian Peninsula, where the economies of the six oil-rich Arab monarchies depend on security and free trade.
El-Deeb lost his job in June. After returning to Cairo, he found the war had also weakened employment opportunities there. He was unable to find work as businesses downsized amid the economic downturn spurred by the conflict.
His hopes were raised this month when a company in the United Arab Emirates interviewed him for a job. But renewed hostilities after Iranian attacks on commercial ships on July 6 forced the company to put his hiring on hold.
“At first, I saw Iran as a victim,” he told MBN. “Today, I see millions of ordinary people across the Middle East becoming victims of a conflict that keeps expanding,” he added. “There is a difference between defending your country and taking actions that end up hurting neighboring countries.”
Ahmed El-Deeb, an information technology professional, lost his job in Saudi Arabia in June.
El-Deeb is not alone in feeling disappointed by Tehran’s hardline strategy toward its Arab Gulf neighbors. He is among a growing number of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere who initially saw Iran as a victim unjustly attacked by the United States and Israel while it was negotiating with Washington.
But those views are changing because of Tehran’s actions in the Gulf. With more than 35 million expatriates working in the six Gulf Arab states that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council, there are early signs that Iran’s attacks on the region are costing it hearts and minds, including in predominantly Muslim countries.
For millions of families in the Middle East and South Asia, instability in the Gulf directly threatens household incomes. As remittances from the Gulf decline, the already struggling economies of countries including Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh are bracing for economic shocks.
“What Iran is doing is absolutely not acceptable,” said Saeed Ahmed, a Pakistani entrepreneur who recently returned from Dubai, where his once-successful car business suffered heavy losses. “We are witnessing that its actions now are aimed at destroying the region.”
Ahmed, who is middle-aged, moved to Dubai four years ago to escape economic uncertainty. His investment in a used-car business initially paid handsome dividends. But the outbreak of the war with Iran proved catastrophic. He said his losses mounted rapidly after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz made it extremely difficult to operate a business dependent on shipping.
“Tehran’s recent acts are similar to a maniac bent on killing his neighbors before killing himself,” he told MBN.
On July 6, Iran began targeting commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, weeks after signing a Memorandum Of Understanding with the United States. Tehran had promised to “make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels” through the strait.
But Iranian forces reportedly targeted ships using a sea lane near the Omani coast within Oman’s territorial waters. Since then, Washington has bombed targets along Iran’s southern coast on the Persian Gulf. In retaliation, Iran has targeted Gulf states, including Oman, which has long sought good relations with Tehran and served as an intermediary in negotiations with Washington.
Obtaining reliable polling data in authoritarian countries is difficult. But some public opinion surveys pointed to a sharp increase in support for Iran in some Arab and Muslim countries after its supreme leader and other senior officials were killed at the beginning of the war in February. That sympathy now appears to be dissipating as Tehran seeks control of the Strait of Hormuz and military dominance over its Gulf Arab neighbors.
Smoke rises after a drone was intercepted over Manama, Bahrain, during the early morning hours of July 13: Reuters.
Ahmed Alkhuzei, a leading analyst in Bahrain, said that as the war drags on, people increasingly experience its consequences in their daily lives. As a result, he said, they are more likely to see Tehran not as a victim but as a destabilizing force whose actions directly threaten their security and prosperity.
“Iran is being recast from a distant geopolitical actor into the immediate source of instability,” he told MBN.
Since the outbreak of the war, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have borne the brunt of Iranian attacks, but Tehran has also targeted Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. The latter two were not spared despite mediating in the conflict. Iranian attacks have also extended to Jordan and Iraq.
Tehran claims it has targeted only U.S. military bases in Gulf Arab countries. But dozens of civilians, most of them expatriate workers, have been killed in Iranian attacks. Drone and missile strikes have also hit ports, airports, hotels, and oil and gas facilities.
Alkhuzei said public sentiment across the Gulf is hardening against Iran. “Media discourse has become sharper in its criticism of Iran, portraying its actions as reckless and destabilizing,” he said. “Political messaging from Gulf capitals increasingly emphasizes deterrence and collective defense, resonating with this new mood.”
Layla Al-Qahtani, a Kuwaiti journalist, said Iran’s relentless attacks on Gulf Arab states have rapidly shifted public opinion against Tehran, which is now widely viewed as a country seeking to destabilize the region.
“Iran expanded its attacks. It targeted infrastructure as well as citizens’ homes and residential areas,” she said. “It has completely squandered its political capital and exposed its ugly face to the Arab and Islamic worlds.”
Hussein Ibish, a scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said residents of the Gulf Arab countries resent Iran for damaging their livelihoods and using them as “pawns” to pressure the United States.
He said the Gulf’s central role in providing jobs and supporting national economies through remittances means the conflict resonates far beyond the region.
“When you hurt somebody’s pocket, somebody’s economy, they are going to be angry,” he told MBN. “If the conflict drags on and pocketbooks are hurt, it will backfire on the Iranians.”
In Egypt and Pakistan, El-Deeb and Ahmed are waiting impatiently for the war to end so they can rebuild their livelihoods.
“The longer this conflict continues, the greater the burden on ordinary people,” El-Deeb said. “Governments may continue negotiations, but families are already paying the price.”
