Threatening to attack Iran has been such a popular pastime for Israeli governments that they created an entire government ministry called the Strategic Affairs Ministry whose sole purpose is to spend all day planning “initiatives” aimed at an eventual war with Iran.

The election of a reformist president in Iran and a push for diplomacy that is gaining worldwide traction has been disconcerting to Israeli officials, to say the least, and has led to angry condemnations, hawkish speeches, and now comments from Likud MP Tzachi Hanegbi saying his government is no longer convinced the US is serious about its threats to attack Iran.

This has Israel’s hawkish officials talking up the prospect of a unilateral attack, and according to new reports today, has them holding “intensive meetings” with top officials from a number of Gulf states, in an attempt to cobble together an alliance to attack Iran without the US.

Though the reports didn’t specify which nations’ officials were met with, the smart money is on the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain, all long-time regional rivals of Iran.

In the past, there have been on-again, off-again rumors of Saudi Arabia being willing to grant Israel an airspace corridor through which to attack Iran, though the Saudi government has always denied that this would be the case. The new talks seem likely to revive that speculation.