The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia reportedly carried out individual, covert, offensive military strikes against Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, marking the first known offensive actions by Gulf states against Tehran since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes triggering the Iran war in late February.
They have shown that they are willing to move militarily against the radical Shi’ite state, which is geostrategically very significant. The involvement of Arab nations could change the map and help isolate the terrorist regime of Iran.
U.A.E.
The strikes, which the U.A.E. hasn’t publicly acknowledged, have included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf.
“It’s significant to have a Gulf Arab country as a warring party that struck Iran directly,” said Dina Esfandiary, a Middle East analyst and author of a book on the rise of the U.A.E. “Tehran will now aim to further drive a wedge between the U.A.E. and other Gulf Arabs who are trying to mediate an end to the war.”
The Gulf countries said, ahead of the war, they wouldn’t allow their airspace or bases to be used for attacks. But once the war started, Iran responded by launching missile and drone attacks against Gulf population centers, energy infrastructure, and airports in an effort to raise the economic and political costs and make it harder for the U.S. and Israel to continue the attack.
They were hammered
Iran focused much of its fire on the U.A.E., targeting it with more than 2,800 missiles and drones—far more than any other country, including Israel. The attacks have hammered the U.A.E.’s air traffic, tourism, and property markets, leading to a wave of furloughs and layoffs. They have also prompted a fundamental shift in the country’s strategic outlook to one that now sees Iran as a rogue actor bent on undermining the country’s economic and social model based on expatriate talent and a reputation for safety and stability, Gulf officials have said.
“The Emiratis made it clear early on that they didn’t want this war. But it’s also clear that since the first Iranian strikes on the U.A.E. took place, Abu Dhabi’s been quite transparent that they see the regional picture as having changed dramatically,” said H.A. Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the Middle East war, two Western officials briefed on the matter and two Iranian officials said.
The Saudi attacks, not previously reported, mark the first time that the kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian soil and show it is becoming much bolder in defending itself against its main regional rival.
The U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE carried out strikes against Iran. Israel gave the UAE an Iron Dome. Qatar denies hitting Iran, but there are indications that they did.