Is Saudi Arabia next after Qatar? What does the Saudi-Pakistani Mutual Defense Deal Mean?

Simon Chege Ndiritu, New Eastern Outlook, September 28, 2025 —

Israel’s attack on Qatar in September 2025 should confirm that no Middle Eastern country will be spared in the next phase of the aggressors’ expanded plan to control the region.

The Final Stage?

Despite the Gulf Monarchies being historically misled into believing that they were immune to US-Israeli destruction meted out on other Arab-Muslim countries, they may soon find themselves under attack. Returning to the attack on Qatar, it was followed by America’s spirited attempts to cast it as Israel’s unilateral action while insisting that Washington was still a reliable defense partner for Arabs, but both endeavors have collapsed. The failure of these attempts is evident in Saudi Arabia’s subsequent decision to sign a strategic mutual defense agreement with Pakistan, which reflects a loss of trust in US defense cooperation. Such a move would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, when the US had misrepresented itself as the gold standard of security assurance to its allies. Saudi Arabia’s shift to Pakistan shows erosion of the massive goodwill that some Arab countries had given to the US, which Washington perennially abused to cause endless wars and instability, including through Israel, for neocolonial ambitions. This new mutual defense agreement will dissuade Israel from bombing Saudi Arabia and deny Washington the US of this proxy, but the US can opt to directly attack Gulf Monarchies and even draw Pakistan into a conflict and destabilize the Indian subcontinent like it has done to the Middle East. However, such a desperate posture would further weaken the West’s failing hegemony.

US Central Command and the Greater Israel

The reason why the US assigns the Middle East as its Central Military District is that it harbors a plan to control territory in this region. Washington’s ruling class has outlined intentions to control the Middle East’s resources, including through Israel, while Israel has also outlined a secret plan to expand its territories. Washington and Tel Aviv can only implement their plans by destroying the existing states alongside large sections of their populations, and both have been implementing this destruction for decades through numerous military campaigns that have been promoted as isolated events. However, these supposed isolated events, each of which is assigned separate justifications, such as fighting the development of weapons of mass destruction or eliminating threats to Israel, have had the cumulative effect of ravaging many countries in the Middle East.

The US, a country in North America, designating the Middle East as its “Central Military District” and proceeding to systematically wipe out stable governments in the region should have been adequate to raise alarm over its desire to colonize the region. For instance, Washington has been bombing Iraq continuously for over the last 30 years under different pretexts, but the cumulative result has been destroying a strong state and preventing the formation of a stable one. It has also maintained a similar policy of bombing Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen either directly or through Israel for decades, using apparently disjointed justifications but pursuing the same aggregate result of destroying legitimate states with strong militaries that can defend territories and populations. While some Arab and Muslim countries have been misled to believe that each country bombed was evil and different from theirs, they wrongly believed that theirs would be spared, but they may find out that they are also lined up for destruction. Those who avoid reaching this clear conclusion do so at their own peril.

The period after the attack on Qatar has revealed unmistakable signs that the US and Israel are one entity. The most significant sign of this reality was Israel’s hosting the so-called 50 States One Israel summit between September 14 and 18, 2025, in which 250 legislators from US states went to Israel. It was puzzling how such a large number of US officials were not conducting their country’s business, which illustrates that their government prioritizes Israel as an extension of Washington. These legislators sat to listen to the Israeli prime minister, who listed Qatar and China as reportedly holding a siege on both the US and Israel. Surprisingly, Netanyahu was antagonizing a country that has allowed the US to build the largest military base in the Middle East, showing a lack of gratitude, and a pervasive sense of entitlement.

And how does the US view the Gulf Monarchies?

Washington’s attempts to distance itself from Israel’s brazen attack on Qatar also reveal its condescending attitude towards its Gulf allies and their ability to process information to link crimes to their perpetrators. Evidence shows that the US and its allies were aware of the attack and even facilitated it. Reports have indicated that a British air tanker rose from a base in Qatar and engaged Qatari fighter aircraft in air refueling drills, which may have been planned to distract the victims from responding to Israeli bombing. Notably, the UK is Israel’s close military ally, which supplies the Jewish state with equipment and intelligence, making it impossible that it was unaware of the impending attack. However, it chose to distract Qataris. Also, the US, despite benefitting from Qatari territory and using it for endless military adventures against Arabs and Muslims, saw no need to defend it against Israel, as its air defense system did not confront the aggression. Qatar has perennially posed as a leading US ally in the region, and recently gifted the US president a $400 million worth airplane while committing to make a massive investment in the US economy. However, its cordial overtures counted for naught in swaying Washington to dissuade Israel from bombing its territory. Instead, it swung into action, sanitizing the bombing by claiming that it had notified the Qataris and could not even recognize the civilians injured or the infrastructure destroyed. With Israel having attacked Washington’s closest ally in the region, other of the so-called allies have received the message that they can be attacked, and that the presence of the US military is useless in securing them.