The United States, Gulf States, and Israel just worked together to prevent mass executions and further loss of life in Iran. Whatever happens next, that's a major victory.

The decades-old dream of millions of Iranians — and millions of peace-loving people around the world — is still alive. But this week reminded us of something else just as important:

Revolutions don’t only happen in the streets. They also happen in the shadows — in back channels, pressure campaigns, and diplomatic phone calls that never make the evening news.

And by that measure, one story is hard to miss: Trump’s Gulf diplomacy is really working.

In the span of days, the United States, key Gulf states, and Israel appeared to move in unusual coordination — not to “save” the Iranian regime, but to corner it, warn it, and force it into visible retreat, however temporary.

The week Iran blinked

It began with the images no one can shake: protests spreading, Iranian women tearing off headscarves, the regime lashing out with familiar rage. But then it escalated into something even darker — reports that Tehran was preparing to execute protesters, not quietly, but as a public message of terror.

That’s when President Donald Trump did something few Western leaders have dared to do in years: he spoke directly to the Iranian people and effectively put the regime on notice.

“HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” Trump announced, urging Iranians to keep protesting and announcing he had canceled meetings with Iranian officials until the killing stopped.

In Washington, this wasn’t just rhetoric. Multiple reports suggested top officials were meeting to weigh options — including military ones — while U.S. forces took precautionary steps and repositioned assets in the region.

This is the part many Americans forget: the point of credible force is not always to use it. Sometimes the point is simply to make the other side believe you might.

For a regime like Iran’s — a government that survives by convincing its enemies it’s too risky, too entrenched, too brutal to challenge — that shift matters.

Tehran’s “no executions” message — and the trap inside it

Soon after, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi went on Fox News and claimed Tehran had “no plan” to execute protesters.

Then came the White House statement that made headlines: Iran had allegedly halted 800 executions. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the change as a response to Trump’s warnings.

Taken at face value, it sounds like deterrence worked. Like the regime stepped back from the cliff.

But here’s the truth that too many people miss: the Islamic Republic can technically tell the truth while still committing the lie of the century.

Iran rarely executes people under the clean, formal label of “participating in an illegal gathering.” That offense doesn’t carry the death penalty. So officials can smile and say, sincerely, “We don’t execute protesters.”

Instead, the regime performs its favorite bureaucratic magic trick. It renames them.

First they’re “protesters.” Then “rioters.” Then “saboteurs.” Then “terrorists.” And once you are no longer a protester — once you’ve been relabeled — prosecutors can reach for a different menu of charges: warring against God, corruption on earth, terrorism, collaboration with hostile states.

Charges that come with death sentences.

The danger isn’t that Tehran will execute people for protesting. The danger is that those who protest may still face execution once the government finishes rebranding them.

The Islamic Republic doesn’t moderate. It maneuvers.

Why Trump’s Gulf diplomacy matters

This is where the Gulf comes in — and why Trump’s Middle East diplomacy may be the most underrated force shaping the moment.

Behind the scenes, regional allies weren’t just watching. They were working.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar reportedly pushed for de-escalation — not because they love the Iranian regime, but because they understand how quickly a strike can widen into something no one controls. Their message, in effect, was: force Tehran to back down without lighting the whole region on fire.

That’s not weakness. That’s strategy.

There are other signs of this strategy simmering below the surface. Recent news reports revealed that Mossad is in Florida meeting with White House envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff is said to be managing communications between the U.S. and Iran.

And it comes as reports swirl that Trump and Netanyahu have been on the phone repeatedly over multiple nights.

What does that predict?

It predicts coordination — not improvisation. Intelligence-sharing. Strategy alignment. A shared understanding.

What happens next?

There are two Irans fighting to be born right now.

One is the Iran you see in the videos: women unafraid, young people unbroken, citizens refusing to live as prisoners. The Iran of courage and beauty and a future that doesn’t revolve around terror.

And the other is the Iran the regime is trying to preserve: a prison state with a flexible vocabulary of repression, where “rights” exist only on paper and due process is whatever the security services say it is.

This week, Trump and allied Gulf states appear to have succeeded in one critical thing: they forced the regime to show fear.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)