Anxiety is mounting among officials from several Gulf nations that President Donald Trump may be inexorably driving the United States toward another attack against Iran, despite their ongoing efforts to counsel restraint.

According to three people familiar with conversations between the administration and its Gulf allies, the White House is giving few assurances about heeding that counsel. And the three people believe Trump’s tough public rhetoric — not to mention his continued shifting of military resources toward the Gulf — are boxing him in to the point that some kind of strike on Iran may beinevitable.

After the U.S. operation weeks ago to remove former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, “there is no doubt about the U.S. military’s capabilities,” said one of the people familiar, a senior Gulf official. Like others interviewed for this report, the official was granted anonymity to speak candidly about a fluid and highly sensitive geopolitical situation.

What has been harder to assess, the senior Gulf official said, is whether Trump has settled on a clear objective for another assault on Iran — whether to pursue regime change in Tehran or simply to send a message — not to mention the tactics. Trump has repeatedly vaguely promised protestors in Iran that “help is on the way.”

“It’s still unclear to us what both sides want, even after a lot of dialogue,” said the second person familiar, a senior Arab diplomat who’s been in contact with the administration.

Five countries — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Turkiye — have been working together to stave off another flare-up or all-out war that could destabilize the Gulf region. Trump has long prioritized deepening business and diplomatic ties in a modernizing, more peaceful Middle East, an objective that at times has come into conflict with his approach to Iran, where he continues to hold out the threat of military force in his pursuit of a deal.

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, went public this week with his promise to Iran’s president that Riyadh would not allow its airspace to be used for any attack on Iran. That followed a similar statement from the UAE.

Through various channels, officials from those nations have urged Iran’s leaders to the negotiating table. But they privately acknowledge that a deal to further eradicate the country’s nuclear program, which was severely degraded in a U.S. bombing blitz last year at the end of a 12-day war with Israel, seems unlikely.

On Friday while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump, who was warned Iran’s leaders both about restarting its nuclear program and any violence used to quell mass protests, again drew attention to the fact that a “large armada” of American warships was headed to the Gulf at his direction. He noted that this show of force is one that’s “even larger than in Venezuela.”

That new naval deployment rivals that sent in the spring before the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is newly arrived in the region, alongside five guided missile destroyers and two smaller littoral combat ships which can be used to track missiles launched by Iran. While the U.S. and allies have significant air defenses in the region, some systems that were rushed there in the spring, like a Patriot battery normally stationed in South Korea, have returned home.

While Trump pointed out the armada’s fire power, he expressed that his preference would be finding a diplomatic solution. “If we do make a deal, that’s good. If we don’t make a deal. We’ll see what happens,” he said, adding that Iran wants to make a deal.