Iran on Sunday expanded its response to US-Israeli strikes by targeting Gulf Arab states, including Oman and the United Arab Emirates, in what analysts say is an attempt to pressure Washington but one that risks driving the region closer to the United States.
According to CNN, Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel and at civilian locations such as hotels and airports in several Middle Eastern countries that host US military bases. Oman said that its Duqm commercial port was targeted, despite Muscat having mediated talks between the US and Iran just last week.
The strikes suggest that, for Iran, “everything is on the table,” Hasan Alhasan, senior fellow for Middle East policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNN.
“There’s a very clear message… that no one is safe, that mediation doesn’t offer protection, and that exchanges of mutual assurances or pledges not to allow airspaces or territories to be used militarily against Iran are ineffective either,” Alhasan said.
He added that Iran’s approach appears aimed at increasing pressure on Gulf governments so they, in turn, push the US administration to bring the conflict to an early end.
Iran’s calculus, he said, is to “ratchet up the pain on the Gulf states, in order to compel them to apply pressure on the Trump administration to bring a quick end to the war.”
However, Alhasan cautioned that the strategy could prove counterproductive. It remains unclear how much leverage Gulf states hold over Washington.
“It’s quite clear that the US has a mind of its own, and it’s acting in close concert with the Israelis. And I think what Iran’s strategy may end up doing, in fact, is pushing the Gulf states into closer alignment with the US, rather than the other way around,” he said.
He further noted that while Gulf countries favour de-escalation, large-scale civilian casualties could force them “to start considering options up the escalation ladder.”
Meanwhile, Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the UAE president and former state minister for foreign affairs, said Iran had “missed its target” with attacks on Arab Gulf states.
“Your war is not with your neighbors, and through this escalation,” Gargash wrote Sunday on X.
“Return to your senses, to your surroundings, and deal with your neighbors with reason and responsibility before the circle of isolation and escalation widens, " he said.
The UAE, which in recent years had sought to ease tensions with Iran, was among the countries hit, with Dubai, the country’s commercial hub, particularly affected by missiles and drones, AP reported.
The developments mark a widening of the conflict beyond US, Israel and Iran, placing Gulf states, many of which host US military facilities, in a more direct line of fire, even as they publicly call for restraint.
It comes as on early Saturday, US-Israel conducted joint raids in Iran, what was called Operation Epic Fury, which killed Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and Iran’s top military and security commanders.
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