U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has called on America’s Gulf allies to end their long-standing rift and instead focus their attention on the threat from Iran.

In June 2017, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE (along with Egypt) imposed a trade boycott on Qatar, a fellow member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), accusing it of interference in their domestic affairs and supporting terrorist groups.

Esper, who recently held talks with Saudi Arabia’s deputy defense minister Khalid Bin Salman, said on September 6 that “Our point to the GCC countries is that they need to resolve this quickly. It’s gone on too long. Because the bigger challenge for the region is Iran. Iran is rampant in terms of its militias’ malign behavior throughout the region. That’s the big challenge.”

“The key issue that needs to be addressed is the malign influence of Iran throughout the region,” he said. “Iran is supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Houthis every day are shooting missiles into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, causing a lot of destruction and turbulence. They are funding militias throughout Iraq and into Syria and of course Lebanon. A fundamental challenge for the region is Iran and Iran not behaving like a normal country, not abiding by the rules of international law.”

However, the U.S. has faced difficulty in persuading its allies in the region and beyond to adopt the same hardline attitude to Iran.

Many European countries have insisted on sticking to the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – even after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of it in May 2018 and then reimposed sanctions.

Esper acknowledged the difference of opinions between the U.S. and Europe. “We had a different view on the JCPOA,” he said. “Our view is to use the maximum pressure campaign to bring Iran back to the negotiating table so that we can find a new path toward a new JCPOA, one that really ensures that Iran doesn’t pursue or acquire a nuclear weapon, not just in 10 or 15 years but forever.”

In the Gulf itself, the split in the GCC has caused further difficulties for U.S. hopes of presenting a united front against Tehran. Since the boycott was imposed, Qatar has had to look for alternative commercial partners and it has increased its trade and diplomatic ties with Iran, among others.

However, U.S. sanctions are clearly having an impact on the Iranian economy and Esper claimed to detect signs of a possible change in behavior from the leadership in Tehran as a result.

He said Washington was prepared to hold talks with Iran’s leaders “any time, without precondition and sit down and discuss a way forward that avoids conflict but gets us to a better deal than was negotiated under a JCPOA. It seems in some ways Iran is inching toward that place where we could have talks… That’s our goal, to get them to the table.”

However, Iranian leaders have been consistent in refusing to speak to the U.S. unless it first lifts its sanctions. That position was reiterated by President Hassan Rouhani earlier this week, when he told the Iranian parliament on September 3 that “we never had nor do we have any decision to hold bilateral talks with the U.S. at any stage. There have been many offers [of talks], but our answer is always negative.”

The chances of a resolution of the GCC schism look equally remote, with neither side appearing to feel any real pressure to back down.