All countries apparently involved in the current US-Iran standoff claim that they do not want war in the region but are inexorably moving step by step towards a military clash. Notwithstanding the recent statements of the American, Iranian and Saudi leadership for no-war, the tension in the Gulf has been escalating owing a great to the irreconcilable objectives of the stakeholders. What the American and Arab leaders want Iran to concede seems unlikely given the historic record of the defiance of the Persian nation since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Since the past one decade, the American policy, contrary to what tall claims President Barak Obama made in his speech in Cairo in 2009, remained hinged to the whimsical likes and dislikes of the Arab monarchs – hell bent on settling old scores with certain autocrats. They prevailed on the US to turn the Arab Spring into a regime change exercise, concentrating on the countries and entities that posed a sort of security threat to Israel and its Arab allies in the Gulf. Thus, the US squandered a golden opportunity to lay the foundations of liberal democracy in many Arab countries. The real objective of the US in the Gulf region is to secure Israel weakening the strong and affluent Muslim countries and encouraging Arab Monarchies and Emirates to come under the security umbrella of Israel. What the USA demand that Iran should behave as a ‘normal state’ means is to withdraw its support to Bashar ul Asad, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis; disarm the Shia militias from different countries presently supporting Hezbollah in Syria; restrict the influence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, abandon its nuclear and missile development program and end its competition with Saudi Arabia for hegemony in the Gulf. Iran would not bow and accept a fraction of the US demands. The Arabs would keep fueling the tension and goading President Trump towards a Libya style attack on Iran. They will leave no stone unturned in their bid to subdue Iran The strategic objectives of Saudi Arabia and UAE overlap with those of USA. The USA strategic objectives could be well served if all the countries of the region subordinate their foreign policies to the US diktat. Given the historic hostility between Arabs and Persians, the former have never been willing to believe in the statements of good neighborliness and peaceful coexistence coming out of Tehran. They want to see Iran economically weakened so as not to be able to financially sustain its population, supporters of clergy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, its proxy militias, militarily battered and diplomatically isolated. They depend for all this on the USA and Israel. They keep on fueling the hostility by bringing in questions of the disruption of the vital Sea lanes of the Gulf of Oman, Strait of Hormuz and Aden. Over 80% of the Saudi’s foreign trade including the outbound oil cargos pass through Aden and the Strait of Hormuz. Any disruption of cargo traffic in these waterways would enormously disturb the oil supply to the Western world. Whatever attacks take place in the Gulf, Iran is unsurprisingly blamed by the Arabs and the USA. The US National Security Advisor, John Bolton is always dead sure that Iranian proxies were involved in the attacks. The Secretary of State Pompeo says that the US was ready to hold unconditional talks with Iran provided the latter behaves as a ‘normal state’, and threatens, in the same vein, that they will take all military steps to deter Iran from any mischief. Saudi leaders also say they do not want war in the Gulf but deep in their hearts, they want to see Iran economically destroyed. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s dash to Tehran failed to lower the tension in the region. The Iranians are a proud and resilient nation. Their aversion to the Arabs is deeply rooted in history. Their relations with the US since the advent of the clergy rule have been underlined by persistent hostility. The Iranians have always been mindful of the enmity of the US and the Arab countries towards their country after the Islamic revolution. They have derived hard lessons from this historic record and would not compromise on their pride and dignity. Iran would not accept the hegemony of Saudi Arabia in the Gulf region. It would continue to back the Shia populations in the Arab countries. Shias all over the Muslim world would continue to look towards Iran as their spiritual center. It would never severe its relations with Hezbollah, Hamas, and other Shia militant groups. Iranians will be willing to lower the tension and resume talks with the USA if the latter, as a confidence building measure, removes sanctions on the import of the Iranian oil by the major importers like China, Japan, India, South Korea and a few other countries, relaxes embargo on banking transactions for import of medicines and other essential items as suggested by the Swiss Foreign Minister recently. Iran wants the US to recognize the legitimacy of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of May 2015 as the first step for talks There is no hope that the US would do that. Iran would not bow and accept a fraction of the US demands. The Arabs would keep fueling the tension and goading President Trump towards a Libya style attack on Iran. They will leave no stone unturned in their bid to subdue Iran. President Donald Trump is in the grip of hawks like John Bolton, Mike Pompeo. Netanyahu, in a bid to satisfy his big ego, is naming the Jewish settlements in Golan Height after him. Arabs are filling his coffer with billions in arms purchase. Pakistan has yet to overcome its political and economic troubles. It has not been able to bridge the trust deficit with Iran caused by the activities of Jash ul Adel. Iran suspects the Jash is backed by the Saudi Arabia with our connivance. The recent exchange of bilateral visits at the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister levels has not fully addressed the Iranian suspicions. Our leanings towards Arabs are too obvious to go unnoticed by Iranians. What the unpitying heavens from above signal is ‘whither the Muslim world’. The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books