The United Arab Emirates has called on Gulf Arab states to rebuild their collective approach to security and defence, after a sharp escalation of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia that has killed at least 13 people, including an Indian national, in strikes on Riyadh's main airport.
On Monday, 12 October 2026, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, posted on X that the attacks had demonstrated the security of Gulf states was indivisible, and urged a revival of joint Gulf action, particularly in its security and defence dimensions. The statement marks one of the strongest Emirati calls for regional security coordination in recent years, and it comes as Saudi Arabia retaliates with airstrikes and the United States weighs joining the fight.
The intervention also carries extra weight because the UAE and Saudi Arabia have had visible differences on foreign policy in recent months, notably over Yemen. Gargash's message framed the moment as one that requires the region to set those differences aside.
Background: the idea of one Gulf security
The six Gulf Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman, have long treated regional security as a shared project in principle. The council was founded in 1981 partly as a response to the region's wars and revolutions, and its members built joint defence structures, including the Peninsula Shield Force, on the doctrine that an attack on one member concerns them all.
In practice, that collective machinery has often moved more slowly than the threats facing the region. The member states have different relationships with Iran, different views on Yemen's civil war, and at times very public disagreements with each other. The UAE and Saudi Arabia were partners in the Yemen conflict for years but backed different forces within the military coalition supporting Yemen's government, and their relationship cooled sharply over the past year. Gargash's post acknowledged the strain directly: he wrote that the security and defence dimension of joint Gulf action had suffered serious neglect, and that this neglect had encouraged others to overreach against the region.
The backdrop is the growing reach of the Houthis, the Iran-aligned movement that controls much of northern Yemen. The group has moved from attacking Red Sea shipping and targets inside Yemen to striking deep inside Saudi Arabia, including civilian airports, and has repeatedly threatened airports, airspace, and the oil installations that power the Saudi economy. For the Gulf monarchies, that shift from a Yemeni civil war to direct strikes on their capitals has changed the security equation.
What Gargash said
In his post on X, Gargash argued that the current wave of attacks was rooted in the aggressor's misjudgement that the Arab Gulf states were the weak link in a war they had sought to avoid. That miscalculation, he wrote, had now been exposed: it had become clear that all of the Gulf states are targeted.
Targeting Saudi Arabia, he said, undermines the security of the UAE and every other Gulf state. The attacks had demonstrated, in his words, that the security of the Gulf states is indivisible, a phrase that echoes the founding doctrine of the Gulf Cooperation Council itself.
His central demand was institutional. He called for reviving joint Gulf action, especially in its security and defence aspects, and for strengthening the collective security system. He said the security and defence dimension had witnessed grave neglect, and that this neglect had emboldened others to overreach against the Gulf states. He closed by describing Gulf security as a shared responsibility that allows for no leniency and no delay.
The statement followed an expression of full solidarity with Saudi Arabia from the UAE on Sunday. The Emirati foreign ministry called the airport attack a flagrant violation of sovereignty and said it backed all measures needed to preserve the kingdom's security and stability.
What happened: the airport attacks
The immediate trigger for Gargash's call was the attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on 10 October. Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement on 11 October that the attack had killed 12 people, including four Saudi citizens and residents of several nationalities, and left 309 others injured. The death toll later rose to 13 after the Indian Embassy in Riyadh confirmed that an Indian national injured in the incident had died.
The violence did not stop there. On Sunday, 11 October, a second attack on the airport killed at least one person and wounded 11, according to the Saudi civil aviation authority. Our earlier coverage tracked the first of these strikes in detail: the Houthi missile attack on Riyadh airport, and the wider escalation is covered in our piece on the Iran-Houthi-Saudi confrontation.
Saudi Arabia has responded with intensified airstrikes against the Houthis inside Yemen, including what Yemeni television described as hits on targets in al-Jawf province on Monday. The Houthis, for their part, have shown no sign of easing their barrage, continuing to threaten Saudi airports, airspace, and oil facilities even as Saudi jets hit back.
The crisis has also drawn in Washington. US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States was considering joining Saudi Arabia in strikes on the Houthis, though there has been no sign yet of any American action. Meanwhile, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told an energy conference on Monday that the kingdom would stay focused on attracting investment as part of its wider economic development goals, signalling an effort to keep the economy on track despite the security crisis.
Why it matters
Gargash's statement matters because of who said it and when. The UAE is the Gulf state whose foreign policy has diverged most visibly from Riyadh's in recent months. An Emirati presidential adviser publicly calling for revived joint action, and explicitly tying Emirati security to Saudi security, is a signal that the attacks have pushed regional calculations back toward unity, at least for now.
It also matters because civilian airports are now the front line. Strikes on King Khalid International Airport, one of the busiest hubs in the Middle East, threaten not just lives but the aviation, tourism, and investment flows that the Gulf states are counting on for their economic diversification plans. The Houthis have repeatedly threatened airlines and airspace, raising the stakes for every carrier operating in the region.
The human cost adds an international dimension. The confirmed death of an Indian national in the 10 October attack means the crisis now directly touches one of the Gulf's largest expatriate communities. India has a huge diaspora across the Gulf states, and the safety of its citizens abroad is a major concern for New Delhi, giving the escalation diplomatic consequences well beyond the region. The UAE, meanwhile, has shown a willingness to act on regional security at sea before, as in its recent operation to rescue the crew of a burning tanker, covered in our report on the UAE tanker rescue.
Finally, the call exposes the gap between Gulf rhetoric and Gulf institutions. Reviving joint action is easier to demand than to build. Whether the council's members can convert this moment into real coordination, shared air defences, joint command structures, or simply sustained political alignment, will determine whether Gargash's post is remembered as a turning point or as another statement.
Key facts
- On 12 October 2026, UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash called on X for reviving joint Gulf action on security and defence and strengthening the collective security framework.
- Gargash said the attacks had shown the security of Gulf states is indivisible, and that targeting Saudi Arabia undermines the security of the UAE and all Gulf states.
- The call followed the 10 October attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh; Saudi aviation authorities reported 12 dead and 309 injured, and the toll later rose to 13 after the Indian Embassy confirmed an Indian national had died.
- A second attack on the airport on 11 October killed at least one person and wounded 11, according to the Saudi civil aviation authority.
- The UAE expressed full solidarity with Saudi Arabia on Sunday, calling the attack a flagrant violation of sovereignty and backing all measures to preserve Saudi security.
- Saudi Arabia has retaliated with intensified airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen; the Houthis have threatened Saudi airports, airspace, and oil installations.
- US President Donald Trump said on 12 October that Washington was considering joining strikes on the Houthis, but no US action has been taken.
What happens next
Several questions will decide where this crisis goes. The first is whether the Houthis continue striking Saudi targets. The group has so far shown no sign of backing down despite Saudi airstrikes, and its threats against airports, airspace, and oil installations suggest the campaign could widen rather than narrow.
The second is the American decision. Trump's statement that Washington is considering joining the strikes introduces a major variable. US involvement would sharply escalate the confrontation with the Houthis and, by extension, with Iran, which backs the group. But the absence of any action so far leaves the region guessing about American intentions.
The third is whether Gargash's call produces anything concrete. A genuine revival of joint Gulf security action would require the member states to move past their recent differences, particularly between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over Yemen, and to invest in shared defence capabilities. The Gulf Cooperation Council has the institutional skeleton for this; what it has lacked is political momentum. A crisis that kills 13 people at a capital's international airport may supply it.
For now, the region watches the skies over Riyadh. Airlines, investors, and the millions of expatriates who live and work in the Gulf are all waiting to see whether this escalation burns out or becomes the new normal.