It is shorthand for UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi - countries that are just a few of the handful remaining autocratic theocracies in the world with terrible human rights records
Those countries are wildly different in terms of human rights violations.
Relax. It's clearly a euphemism for Saudi Arabia.
They should say that then. The gulf countries are not the same.
To say such a thing in public is considered bad for your health.
Syria is the Levant, Gulf countries are countries in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and in the Persian Gulf.