Talmiz Ahmed, India's former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE makes a striking argument: that Iran's decision to allow Indian LPG ships safe passage during an active conflict is not a courtesy but a demonstration of long-term strategic thinking - the kind, he suggests, conspicuously absent among its adversaries. Contrasting Iran's calculated restraint with what he describes as Israel's structurally militarised worldview, he turns his analysis toward the Gulf states. These are wealthy, populous, but are they strategically unsure?. Having repeatedly outsourced their security to Washington, the Gulf nations find themselves repeatedly let down: bypassed during the Obama-era nuclear negotiations, whipsawed by Trump's withdrawal and re-engagement, and unable to build the self-correcting security architecture that would give them genuine independence. Diplomacy alone, he argues, was never going to be enough. The result is a region that is moderate and cautious by necessity, not by strength.