The war between the United States and Iran has validated Tehran's decades-old warning that outsourcing national defense to Washington is a losing strategy, M. Javad Zarif has argued in Foreign Affairs. Arab states that hosted U.S. military bases believed they were buying protection - instead, they became battlegrounds after the United States launched strikes from their territory despite their objections.

Zarif, Iran's former foreign minister, laid out the argument in a piece published by "Hvylya" with reference to Foreign Affairs. He said the outcome was entirely predictable. "The United States decided to start bombing the Islamic Republic despite their verbal - and for some, sincere - objections and used its bases on their territory to carry out its campaign, as anyone in their right mind should have expected," Zarif wrote.

The former diplomat pointed out that Iran had repeatedly proposed regional alternatives that Arab governments rejected. Starting with a 1985 suggestion enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 598, Tehran offered coastal Persian Gulf states a joint security arrangement. It followed up with a nonaggression pact proposal in 2015 and the Hormuz Peace Endeavor in 2019. "Arab states thought that such proposals were unnecessary because, when push came to shove, U.S. officials would help them manage relations with Iran," Zarif wrote.

Zarif also addressed Washington's treatment of its regional partners more broadly, describing Arab allies as little more than expendable assets. The United States "views all its so-called Arab allies in the region merely as shields it can use in defense of Israel," he argued. Iran could obliterate the region's infrastructure in retaliation, he added, but that would not compensate for Tehran's own losses.

The solution Zarif proposed is a formal security network involving Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Yemen - together with permanent Security Council members and possibly Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey. The network would ensure nonaggression, cooperation, and freedom of navigation, including formal arrangements between Iran and Oman for continuous safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Also read: Why McChrystal warned that one tanker hit per week could shut down the strait entirely.