This article examines the role of Gulf aid in shaping understandings of humanitarian governance in Jordan. Through ethnographic engagement, it attends to how humanitarian workers reimagine their practices through the activities of the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), especially in the Mrajeeb Al Fhood Camp—commonly known as the Emirati Camp. By situating the notion of ‘basic human needs’ at the centre of the analysis, the article addresses how local humanitarian workers understand the temporal and spatial conditions generated by the humanitarian structure and neoliberal economy in Jordan. In doing so, the article suggests that the UAE not only creates its own geopolitical ‘grand compromise’ in comparison to the Global North and the UNHCR but also influences practitioners’ understanding of humanitarianism in the region. This offers an analytical perspective on the role of Gulf countries in the humanitarian field beyond the common focus on their foreign aid as a quiet tool of political and economic influence in the larger Mashriq.