Why the Gulf wants Trump to hold the line on Iran

A new push for talks is facing hurdles as U.S. allies seek to keep the pressure on Tehran.

DUBAI—Efforts to rekindle talks to end the war between the U.S. and Iran are running into resistance from major Persian Gulf oil producers that have swung against any accommodation of Tehran, people familiar with the matter said.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Mediators including Qatar are pressing for a fresh round of talks in Oman as soon as next week to try to get Washington and Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and start the process of winding down the war. President Trump said

The pressure from the Gulf is adding to a host of other impediments to a deal. They include Trump’s own inclination to maintain the blockade, concerns in Tehran that any talks would just be a delaying action for the U.S. to get past the midterm elections before returning to the attack, and an increasingly belligerent tone from Iranian hard-liners as U.S. economic pressure bites down harder, the people said.

“There may be no greater force pushing the GCC to conform with U.S. sanctions than the regime reactivating the Houthi threat to their south after months of having blocked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, referring to the Gulf states. “These are the costs and consequences of Iran overplaying its hand.”

A White House official said the sanctions and blockade had left the U.S. in a strong position with Iran.

“While President Trump is open to talking with Iran under the right circumstances, he has no need to negotiate with the Iranians,” the official said.

Arab states led by Saudi Arabia had pushed through the summer for negotiations with Iran and were even willing to countenance a deal that acknowledged some Iranian sway over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea lane for their oil exports.

But Tehran’s attacks on Saudi ships in the waterway and its encouragement of efforts by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen to shut off an alternative route through the Red Sea have raised doubts in the Gulf that Iran could be serious about a deal, the people said.

That view was shared by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who told American officials recently that the U.S. should continue with its blockade until Iran is compelled to sign a new agreement, some of the people said.

U.A.E. officials who previously said their Gulf state was eager to end the conflict diplomatically have also poured water on expectations for talks with Iran and said the flare-ups in regional violence and attacks on ships show Tehran is in no rush to return to diplomacy.

Gulf states shouldn’t be content with permanent Iranian control of the strait, they said.

Other Gulf states, mainly Oman and Qatar, argue the region already has suffered significantly and say proposals for a phased reopening of Hormuz and a halt to attacks on Gulf states are the only viable way to end the conflict.

Qatar has been working around the United Nations General Assembly to restart talks between Iran and the U.S. Iran’s foreign minister landed in Doha on Sunday to discuss new proposals including a seven-day pause in fighting that could pave the way to end Iran’s attacks on shipping in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade, people familiar with the matter said.

That could be a nonstarter. The U.S. has regularly communicated to Qatar that Trump has no intention of lifting the maritime embargo, the people said. Also, while Arab mediators said Iranian diplomats have presented a number of proposals to end the war and acknowledged the deepening economic crisis in their country, they said they are getting a different message from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has said it won’t entertain new formulas for an agreement and that it is prepared for a long war.

The Revolutionary Guard, which is tasked with defending the regime and dominates the power structure in Tehran, wants to return to the terms closer to the preliminary deal Trump struck with Iran in June. That agreement promised to provide relief from sanctions on oil sales, grant access to Iran’s frozen assets and acknowledge a role for Tehran administering the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for opening the waterway.

The U.S. has told mediators it has no interest in returning to that deal and believes economic pressure will eventually force Tehran to sign an agreement with terms that are more favorable to Washington and Gulf states.

Write to Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com and Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com