Smoke rises from Kuwait International Airport after a drone strike on a fuel storage facility in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on Wednesday. The Associated Press.

By Aamer Madhani, Samy Magdy, Matthew Lee, and Sam Mednick | The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran hasn't been weakened enough by the monthlong U.S.-led bombing campaign, according to U.S., Gulf and Israeli officials.

After private grumbling at the start of the war that they were not given adequate advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli attack and complaining the U.S. had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region, some of the regional allies are making the case to the White House that the moment offers a historic opportunity to cripple Tehran's clerical rule once and for all.

Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there's a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The push from the Gulf nations comes as Trump vacillates between claiming that Iran's decimated leadership is ready to settle the conflict and threatening to further escalate the war if a deal is not reached soon.

All the while, Trump is struggling to rally public support at home for a war that's left more than 3,000 dead across the Mideast and is shaking the global economy. Yet the U.S. leader is sounding increasingly confident that he has the full support of his most important Mideast allies - including some that were hesitant about a new military campaign in the lead-up to the war.

"Saudi Arabia's fighting back hard. Qatar is fighting back. UAE is fighting back. Kuwait's fighting back. Bahrain's fighting back," Trump told reporters onAir Force One on Sunday evening as he made his way to Washington from his home in Florida. "They're all fighting back."

The Gulf countries host U.S. forces and bases from which the U.S. has launched strikes on Iran, but have not joined the offensive strikes.

Gulf allies support the war to varying degrees: While regional leaders are broadly supportive now of the U.S. efforts, one Gulf diplomat described some division, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the calls for increasing military pressure on Tehran.

The UAE has emerged as perhaps the most hawkish of the Gulf countries and is pushing hard for Trump to order a ground invasion, the diplomat said. Kuwait and Bahrain also favor this option. The UAE, which has faced more than 2,300 missile and drone attacks from Iran, has only grown more irritated as the war grinds on and the salvos threaten to tarnish its image as the safe, pristine and monied hub for trade and tourism of the Mideast.

Oman and Qatar, which historically have played the role of intermediary between the long economically isolated Iran and the West, have favored a diplomatic solution. The diplomat said Saudi Arabia has argued to the U.S. that ending the war nowwon't produce a "good deal," one guaranteeing security for Iran's Arab neighbors.

The Saudis say an eventual war settlement must neutralize Iran's nuclear program, destroy its ballistic missile capabilities, end Tehran's support for proxy groups and also ensure that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be effectively shut down by the Islamic Republic in the future as it has during the conflict. About 20% of the world's oil flowed through the waterway before the war.

Achieving those goals would require a sharp course correction by the theocracy that has been in charge of the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution or its removal.

Senior Emirati officials, meanwhile, have become more pointed in their rhetoric toward Iran.

The White House declined to comment for this story about the deliberations with Gulf allies. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday underscored that the U.S. and its Gulf Arab allies are in sync about Iran.