Gulf states are in on the whole thing. The US volunteered to shoulder the reputational costs and simplify the narrative to avoid a more destructive Shia-Sunni war. The goal is to incapacitate their ability to invade the rest of the Middle East while setting up the US for greater control over sea trade. Regime change is inevitable if it becomes obvious that the IRGC accomplished basically nothing to resist US imperialism, despite them having many decades of preparation and a militarized command economy where inflation is now some 80%, not to mention they've killed a couple dozen enemy combatants compared to tens of thousands of civilian dissidents. That's the message that is getting gradually absorbed by independent thinkers despite the media's relentless barrage of nonsense.

The gulf states' willingness to price oil in dollars is based on the market's acceptance of dollars. National policy is subordinate to that, and is more dependent on the semiconductors than anything in this region. This is a practice war to gauge where everyone stands, see what works, set an example for the domestic front and carry the lessons into the big one.

Venezuela was first in order to signal that it's safe to disregard the opposition's opinion on anything, because they're also insisting that was somehow a failure.