Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, America’s Arab partners and quasi-partners in the Middle East have been subjected to thousands of Iranian missile and drone strikes as Tehran retaliated against a campaign launched against it by the United States and Israel on February 28. And those Gulf Arab states have become more and more alarmed as Iran has managed to hit airports, apartment buildings, roads, bridges, petrochemical plants and, especially, oil and gas production facilities. More on their mounting anxiety can be found here: “In the Gulf, states are ‘paying the price’ for a war they didn’t start,” by Lucia Stein and Tim Swanston, ABC.net.au,
In the Persian Gulf, the Iran war has delivered a nightmare scenario that many of the region’s royal families long feared and hoped to prevent.
Since the start of the conflict, America’s allies and partners in the Middle East have been subjected to thousands of Iranian missile and drone strikes as Tehran retaliated against a decapitation campaign launched by the United States and Israel in February.
Damaged infrastructure, travel chaos, business uncertainty, and an exodus of tourists and worried families are just some of the costs the war exacted on states in the region, alongside Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted the Gulf’s oil and gas supplies.
Iran’s neighbours have known for decades they would be on the frontline of a conflict and had put contingency plans in place to counter that threat, namely by playing host to their main security guarantor, the US, in the region, analysts said.
But it also left nations “exposed” when US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched strikes in February….
Most of the GCC countries did not want a war between the Islamic Republic and the U.S, rightly fearing Iran could cause great damage to their infrastructures. There was, however, one exception. For months Saudi Arabia has behind the scenes been urging the Americans to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Iran is under the misapprehension that it has won the war. So it is hewing to its maximalist demands, not fully comprehending how much more damage the U.S. and Israel can, and likely will, do to it if it fails to agree to America’s terms.
All the analysts agree that the new leaders in Iran — with Israel having killed so many of their predecessors — are even more fanatical and unyielding than those who came before.
Saudi Arabia has already reported that strikes on its crucial pipeline and production facilities slashed the kingdom’s oil output….
Fully 10% of the normal output of oil from Saudi fields can no longer be lifted, given the damage by Iran to its production facilities.
Tony says
The Sunni-Muslim Countries are victims of Shia-Muslim Iran strikes against those countries, but Muslims also agree that Allah’s Garden awaits those dying in Jihad against America, Israel, and Non-Muslims to make Islam supreme, a WIN-WIN for Muslims and America(Qur’an 9:5, 29, 111; 49:15, etc.). Plus, the Islamization of the West via Islamic Law continuous unchallenged politically, legally, and militarily by Non-Muslims. Allah in Qur’an 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah[ie. Allah’s Cause to make Islam Supreme], so they kill and are killed…”.
Allah expects all Muslim believers to war against all non-Muslims with MUSLIM MONEY and with MUSLIM LIVES until the Unbelievers convert to Islam or face Muslim violence to make Islam supreme. Allah in Qur’an 8:39 says, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…”
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Hopefully, this war has enlightened Qatar about how brilliant it was of them to ally w/ Iran. Also, today, I heard that banks in the Emirates and Qatar, which previously laundered IRGC money, are now happily sharing those accounts w/ US Treasury regulators, so that the noose can tighten on the funding for the islamic regime
Actually, it’s not like Khamenei, Larijani or others would have wanted to launch such attacks, but w/ the entire islamic command structure being decimated by the Israelis, every regional commander became a warlord in his own right and started launching missiles at anybody – Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrein, Qatar, Emirates, Turkey, Saudi Arabia….. In the process, totally destroying any support the regime had from any of these countries. Now the only way Iran itself can stop being an enemy would be for someone like Pahlavi to come to power. Since he’s a known entity, courtesy somewhat his father (even though he has promised major departures from his father’s policies), maybe the Arabs might prefer a non-islamic Iran to the current Heydar crowd