total-- : --time0:0005:13 PM • June 02 2026 IDTThe Gulf countries are spending "enormous amounts of money to try to mask the economic consequences of the Iran war from their population," Gregg Carlstrom, The Economist's Middle East correspondent, said on the Haaretz Podcast.Carlstrom, speaking from Dubai, explained that with the Strait of Hormuz blocked by Iran, Gulf states are flying in consumer goods, food and medicine normally imported by ship "at a huge expense" so their citizens don't experience shortages or empty shelves in stores.However, he warned, by the end of the summer, if the security situation remains precarious and the Strait remains blocked – and especially if active warfare with Iran is renewed – the economic toll will be impossible to avoid, and these countries will worry about their many expat residents packing up and leaving.In a conversation with Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Carlstrom described a "roller coaster" of changing attitudes in the Gulf States regarding the ongoing U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict.Initially, in March, he said, when the fighting was at its peak, leaders of most of the Gulf countries were "quietly urging the Trump administration to keep fighting until the Iranian regime was overthrown or severely weakened." By now, he said, the U.S. president "really has lost the support he had in the Gulf," as leaders unanimously tell Trump that "this needs to end."The same leaders, he said, are harboring "anger at Israel" for what they see as its "major role in pushing America into this war." As a result, he said, he is skeptical of an expansion of the Abraham Accords, as promised by Trump, in the near future.On the podcast, Carlstrom also discusses the expanding confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the failed negotiations to end it due to what he sees as the "poor job" Lebanon is doing managing its relationship with the United States.In the NewsGregg Carlstrom on Lebanon, Gaza and the Iran Cease-fire That Feels Like WarFake Haaretz Site Pushes Bogus Ukraine Gold Story – and Goes ViralBen Gvir Has Accomplices in the Illegal Treatment of Palestinian PrisonersNetanyahu's Mossad Chief Pick Takes Over Spy Agency After High Court ClearanceHow Israel's Adventures in Lebanon Are Giving Iran a Second ChanceRemembering and rebuilding two years laterICYMIIsrael 2026 Election Poll Tracker: The Latest ProjectionsWho Built the Biblical-era Fortresses in the Deserts of Israel and Jordan?UN Report Accuses Israeli Forces of Rape, Sexual Abuse of Palestinian DetaineesNot Lapid or Bennett: Could This Former IDF Chief Be Israel's Next Leader?Pentagon Leaks Signal U.S. Effort to Blame Israel for Risks of Renewed Iran WarAfter October 7, More and More Americans and Britons Are Choosing Judaism. Why?