Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has delivered a striking message to the rulers of the Gulf: stop allowing divisions within the Muslim world to benefit its enemies and recognize where the region’s real threat comes from.
But behind that appeal for unity lies a difficult contradiction.
Iran is asking Gulf Arab governments to see Tehran as part of a common Islamic front at precisely the moment when many of those governments remain deeply concerned about Iran itself.
That tension may be more important than Khamenei’s words.
In a written message released during Islamic Unity Week, Khamenei called on Muslim countries—particularly governments in West Asia and the Gulf—to cooperate more closely, strengthen mutual defense and resist forces he believes benefit from divisions across the Islamic world.
His message arrives at an extraordinarily sensitive moment.
The Iran war has entered its sixth month, military confrontation between Tehran and Washington has resumed, tensions around the Strait of Hormuz remain high, and regional governments are reassessing how they protect themselves in a Middle East where old security assumptions are rapidly changing.
Khamenei’s Message: Muslim Division Creates Vulnerability
The central argument of Khamenei’s message was straightforward: a divided Muslim world is easier for outside powers to pressure.
He called for greater political and security cooperation among Muslim states and argued that those encouraging divisions ultimately serve the interests of Islam’s adversaries.
Khamenei also invoked the Palestinian issue, questioning whether Palestinians would have become so vulnerable had Muslim countries been more united.
But his most politically significant comments were directed toward the Gulf.
He urged Gulf rulers to identify what he called their “real enemy,” understand that enemy’s strategy and confront it.
Although the message did not reduce the argument to a conventional diplomatic proposal, its implication was difficult to miss.
Tehran wants Gulf governments to reconsider how they view the regional balance of power.
Iran Is Trying to Change the Gulf’s Threat Perception
For decades, much of Gulf security strategy has been built around close relationships with the United States.
American military facilities, weapons and security guarantees have played major roles in protecting several Gulf monarchies.
Iran has frequently criticized that arrangement.
Tehran has instead promoted the idea that regional countries should build their own security architecture without depending heavily on outside military powers.
Khamenei’s latest message fits neatly into that strategy.
Iran is essentially asking its neighbors a fundamental question:
Should Gulf states continue looking toward Washington for protection, or should Muslim countries collectively build their own security system?
In theory, regional cooperation might sound attractive.
In practice, Iran has a major credibility problem.
The Gulf Has Reasons to Fear Iran Too
The biggest obstacle to Khamenei’s appeal is history.
Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, Gulf Arab monarchies have frequently viewed Tehran’s revolutionary ideology and regional ambitions with suspicion.
Iran’s anti-monarchical rhetoric created particular concern among governments whose political systems are built around hereditary rule.
Over subsequent decades, competition expanded across the Middle East as Iran developed relationships with armed groups and political movements in several countries.
Those historical tensions have become even harder to ignore during the current conflict.
Iran has attacked US military facilities and other infrastructure in Gulf states.
So Tehran is now asking Gulf governments to identify another “real enemy” while some of those same governments have recently faced Iranian military action.
That is the contradiction sitting at the heart of Khamenei’s message.
Political unity requires trust.
And trust may currently be the region’s scarcest strategic resource.
A New Defense Pact Shows How Gulf Security Is Already Changing
Events elsewhere in the region make Khamenei’s appeal even more significant.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan recently signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, creating a security arrangement under which an armed attack against one participant would be regarded as an attack against all.
Senior foreign and defense officials from the three countries are now beginning work on implementing the agreement.
The development matters because all three are Sunni-majority states with longstanding relationships with the United States.
They also have concerns about instability generated by both Iran and Israel.
Rather than choosing between complete dependence on Washington and an Iranian-led regional security vision, these countries appear to be exploring a third possibility: stronger security cooperation among major Muslim powers while retaining existing alliances.
That could ultimately prove more consequential than Tehran’s rhetoric.
The Strait of Hormuz Makes Cooperation—and Conflict—More Dangerous
Geography ensures that Iran and the Gulf states cannot simply ignore one another.
The Strait of Hormuz sits between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula and remains one of the world’s most important energy corridors.
Before the current war, roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies passed through the waterway.
Anything that threatens shipping there therefore has consequences far beyond the Middle East.
Renewed US strikes against Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island have once again raised fears of escalation.
Iran responded with attacks against US military facilities, while shipping through the strait has remained severely constrained.
Oil markets reacted quickly, with crude prices climbing more than 3 percent as traders assessed the possibility of further disruption.
For Gulf oil exporters, this creates an uncomfortable reality.
They may disagree profoundly with Tehran, but prolonged confrontation with Iran can directly threaten their own economic interests.
Khamenei Is Also Sending a Message at Home
There is another dimension to the Supreme Leader’s appeal.
Khamenei has not appeared publicly since being injured in the US-Israeli airstrikes six months ago that began the current Iran war and killed his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
His latest message follows another appeal directed toward Iranians in which he emphasized social cohesion and discouraged rhetoric that could weaken national morale.
Taken together, the statements suggest that unity has become a central theme of his leadership during the conflict.
At home, he wants Iranians to remain politically cohesive.
Abroad, he wants Muslim governments to overcome their divisions.
Both messages reflect the same strategic concern: isolation makes Iran weaker.
Palestine Remains Tehran’s Most Powerful Unity Argument
Khamenei’s reference to Palestinians was also significant.
Iran has long used the Palestinian cause as an argument for broader Muslim solidarity.
The political logic is understandable.
While Gulf governments disagree sharply with Tehran on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, regional influence and military policies, support for Palestinians remains a powerful issue across much of the Arab and Muslim world.
By emphasizing Palestine, Khamenei is therefore focusing on an issue where Tehran believes common ground is easier to establish.
The question is whether shared concern about Palestinians can overcome much deeper disagreements about Iran itself.
So far, that remains uncertain.
Iran Wants a Different Regional Order
Look beyond the religious language and Khamenei’s message contains a geopolitical proposition.
Iran wants a Middle East in which regional governments depend less heavily on Western military power and cooperate more extensively with one another.
Such an arrangement would potentially reduce Washington’s influence while giving Tehran greater room to operate as one of the region’s largest states.
But Gulf governments have their own ambitions.
Saudi Arabia increasingly wants to operate as an independent regional power.
Turkey has major military capabilities and NATO membership.
Pakistan brings nuclear weapons into the broader security equation.
The United Arab Emirates and Qatar have also developed increasingly sophisticated foreign policies.
The Middle East that emerges from the current crisis may therefore not be dominated exclusively by Washington—or Tehran.
It could instead become a region of overlapping partnerships in which countries cooperate with different powers depending on the issue.
The Real Question Is Who Gulf States Trust
That is what makes Khamenei’s message more consequential than another call for Islamic solidarity.
He is trying to redefine the central security question facing Gulf governments.
Instead of asking, “How do we protect ourselves from Iran?” Tehran wants its neighbors to ask, “Who benefits from keeping Iran and the Arab Gulf divided?”
But Iran cannot change that calculation through speeches alone.
If Tehran wants Gulf governments to see it as a partner rather than a threat, it would have to convince them through its behavior.
And that becomes particularly difficult while missiles, drones and military strikes continue moving across the region.
The battle for the Gulf, therefore, is no longer only being fought with weapons.
It is also being fought over threat perception.
Iran wants its neighbors to redefine who the enemy is.
Gulf governments are simultaneously building new partnerships to protect themselves from an increasingly unpredictable region.
Which vision ultimately succeeds could help determine the Middle East’s security architecture long after the current war ends.
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