Trump Envoy Tells Nervous Gulf Allies U.S. Can’t Guarantee Security Forever

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct. 20, 2026 10:47 am ET | Feliz Solomon

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Message at a Doha security conference comes as allies worry the U.S. will leave them to clean up after the Iran war

DOHA—Regional security officials received a sobering American message as they gathered in the Qatari capital and braced for a potential new round of escalation between the U.S. and Iran: They need to look out for themselves.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and President Trump’s special envoy for Syria and Iraq, said the grand bargains that have underpinned global security for decades are undergoing major transformation, and countries in the Middle East and elsewhere should focus on securing themselves via regional partnerships.

“America as the guarantor to the world, for the last 80 years, it is no longer there,” Barrack said at the Global Security Forum in Doha, an annual summit that brings together top security officials and experts from around the world. “What’s happening in this administration is not an abandonment. It’s a message for realignment.”

“And that message is like raising a teenager. It’s not easy,” he said.

Arrangements forged in the wake of World War II—essentially a quid pro quo whereby the U.S. provided security in exchange for oil—no longer fit Washington’s imperatives, Barrack said. Americans don’t want to sacrifice their lives for the Middle East, and Gulf states know the U.S. can’t assure their security, he said.

He said the region is right to pivot toward smaller and more diversified alliances like the new defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey. But he acknowledged the transition would be uncertain.

“We don’t have a playbook,” he said. “We’re all on audibles. We can go one play at a time.”

Trump administration officials have delivered similar calls for self reliance at security gatherings in Europe and Asia.

Gulf states tried and failed to talk...

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: muslimtruth

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ChatGPT Article Summary

[bray]

We are paying for the DNC 50 year war on oil.

[Resolute Conservative]

One nuke in Tehran would go a long way.

[stanne]

Yep. No forever wars.

[Sir_Humphrey]

Yep. Never mind the innocent women and children that would be killed. But hey, they would do it to us or something like that.

[ClearCase_guy]

A lot of countries in that region buy a lot of weapons from us. Saudi Arabia, for one. We sure like the money they give us. Then, they seem to mothball the weapon systems we send them. They never use them, don’t seem to know how to use them. I think they’re basically just sending us money in a way that wouldn’t be seen as a strict bribe. But perhaps they ought to actually use these weapons for their intended purposes.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

One nuke in Tehran would go a long way.

What would it do, General?

https://chatgpt.com/share/6ad79de3-e2c8-83e8-88d0-eaff75e6bda5

[DIRTYSECRET]

Let Israel do it.

[kaktuskid]

A thermobaric bomb or two will do the same damage without radiation.

[Reily]

Quite often they’re incapable of using them in any meaningful way. Generations upon generations of the effects of cousin marriage becomes apparent if you try to train the common soldier even some officers.

[proust]

I’m old enough to remember when the argument for going to war with Iran was that they were crazy and would nuke New York.

Now the argument has devolved into nuke their capital because they can’t be trusted with nukes.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A thermobaric bomb or two will do the same damage without radiation.

What good would that do, General?

https://chatgpt.com/share/6ad7a026-2228-83e8-a0eb-10152697a1ba

[Antoninus]

The Gulf Arab states have a long history of paying others to fight for them. They should either fight their own battles or else find another sucker to defend them from the hostiles in their neighborhood.

[Williams]

Despite what he may have said other than turkey being in NATO I am unaware of us unequivocally guaranteeing the security of all these other countries in the middle east.

[Jim Noble]

One nuke in Tehran would go a long way

A long way to what?

[Reily]

Also for those nations US weapons are a form of prestige.
For us it gives funds to our defense industry. Products lines which could shut down if there wasn’t this funding would be expensive hell to rebuild from scratch. Example, consider our current ability to construct warships!

[dfwgator]

I’m sure the Turks would eventually love to take our place in the Middle East.

“Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia/He’s an English Guy/He came to fight the Turkish...Meep! Meep!”

[Resolute Conservative]

Just being tongue in cheek. There is no easy solution to Jimmy Carter’s mess.

My preference is to abandon all ties with ME except for Israel and get off the petro dollar, but that also is not perfect, nor does anybody have the stones/power to do it. Globalism will be our undoing as much as the cultural decay we are witnessing here.

[algore]

now if we could just cut off funding to that other country in the middle east, the one that orchestrated and spawned the whole war with Iran.

[cowboyusa]

The Jacksonian way of War is overwlimg force IF a war is fought, I thought that President Trump would follow this. He did not, VERY DISAPOINTED. But he has KILLED IT on Immigration.