Before the outbreak of the war triggered by the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February, the Gulf monarchies were living the prosperity dream that was the envy of the world.
Their hydrocarbon-fuelled economies were glitzy oases of growth, inoculated from the conflict in Gaza that had rocked other parts of the Middle East for several years.
Underpinned by decades-old US security guarantees and conflict mediation by billionaire sheikhs, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar cultivated images as peaceful lands of opportunity as they invested staggering amounts of money in economic diversification programmes.
Backed by sovereign wealth funds with trillions of dollars invested mostly in the West, these leading states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) embarked on transformative programmes to reposition their economies amid the global transition away from oil and gas. Similar diversification initiatives were also happening in Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, the other three GCC members.