The Billionaire Who Questioned Trump: Khalaf Al Habtoor's Open Letter and the Gulf's Reckoning
This is not merely a story about a businessman’s letter. It is a story about what happens when the Gulf states - the richest, most strategically crucial allies of the United States - begin to ask whether the protection they have paid billions for is actually protection at all. It is a story about the moment when the transactional relationship between Washington and the Gulf reaches its breaking point, and about the unprecedented act of a billionaire from the inner circle of UAE power speaking truth to the American president. I am an Egyptian Muslim living in the West. From here, I watch the Gulf - the region of my brothers, the source of my people’s wealth, the home of the holy places. And I watch as American missiles fly from bases on Arab soil to strike Iran, as Iranian missiles fly back toward the cities where my cousins work, as the Gulf states are dragged into a war they did not choose, did not want, and cannot win. When Khalaf Al Habtoor - a man from the inner circle of Emirati ...