NEW YORK, September 16. /TASS/. US allies in the Middle East have been disappointed with Washington’s ability to ensure their security, former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Bloomberg in an interview.

"It’s sending a message, unfortunately, to our partners in the region that they can’t necessarily count on us when it comes to coming to their defense. And what’s the result? <...> They are all looking to talk to Tehran, maybe cut a deal with Tehran," he said.

Blinken believes that "there is not really a good military solution, absent a full-scale invasion of Iran, which would be a disaster."

"For all of the damage that we’ve done, they still have a lot in their arsenal and they keep producing more. There is not a good military way out; diplomacy is the way you’ve got to go," he concluded.

Earlier, Hisham Ahmed Hellyer, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said in an op-ed for Time that Gulf nations were seeking to reduce their dependence on the US as the only external security guarantor while expanding ties with regional partners.