PNN – Saudi analyst warns of Trump’s costly miscalculation on Iran, calling him a “paper tiger.”
According to the report of Pakistan News Network; A Saudi analyst has warned that Donald Trump is making a costly miscalculation with Iran. The comments come as US-Iran nuclear talks remain deadlocked and Washington’s influence in the Gulf region continues to erode. The warning adds to a growing chorus from regional players questioning whether Trump’s current approach is weakness disguised as strategy.
Saudi expert Mubarak al-Ati said Riyadh no longer looked to Washington for protection. He accused Trump of backing down from putting any real pressure on Tehran. “It seems that Trump refuses to return to war and overthrow the Iranian regime. This will cost him dearly,” al-Ati told Rossiya El-Youm television. He called the US president a “paper tiger.”
In his view, America’s credibility in the region did not disappear overnight. He pointed to the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021 as the moment when these departures became undeniable. The United States, he said, is still a superpower, but a waning superpower. The world has moved on and its alliances have changed.
This shift, the Saudi expert argues, is the main reason Trump’s push for Gulf States to join the Abraham Accords has failed. Countries that once orbited Washington are now doing their own calculations. “The balance of power has shifted significantly,” Al-Ati said. He noted that emerging economies such as India, Saudi Arabia and Brazil are now confident enough to engage with several global powers, not just the United States.
According to Al-Attiyah, Saudi Arabia has been particularly careful not to choose sides in the recent conflict involving Israel and Iran, and this was a deliberate choice. He said: Saudi Arabia has refused to be drawn into the war and has not sided with Israel and the United States, just as it has not sided with Iran. Rather than aligning itself with Washington, he said, Saudi Arabia is quietly forming a broader coalition. He mentioned an emerging “Arab-Islamic bloc” including Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar, a group that is expected to be announced in the near future.