MIDDLE EAST - Many Gulf states believe Iran to be a danger to the region and a destabilising force. Saudi Arabia joined Israel in lobbying the US to launch strikes against Iran. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, argued in favour of an attack during multiple phone calls with Donald Trump in the past month, sources told the Washington Post. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, also continued his long-standing campaign urging the US to join strikes on Iran, the Post reported. Iran has continued its retaliation after the US and Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Saturday morning, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has so far launched attacks on six of its neighbours, inadvertently uniting the Middle East against the Islamic Republic. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, the Emirati political commentator, told The Telegraph that Iran was the unifying threat bringing Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations together, “regardless of differences”. He said: “When things get tough, they come together.”