The government of Saudi Arabia confirmed that it successfully shot down dozens of Iranian drones, and at least two ballistic missiles, on Thursday and Friday, condemning Tehran for its continued attacks on nearly all of its Middle Eastern neighbors.
War erupted in the region on February 28, when President Donald Trump announced Operation Epic Fury, a military engagement meant to eliminate Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors and supply its expansive network of terrorist proxies. The operation began after months of stunted negotiations between Washington and Tehran in which the Iranians demanded sanctions relief but refused to seriously negotiate an end to their illicit nuclear enrichment or limit their nefarious terrorist activities. As a result of the first day of attacks, the “supreme leader” of Iran, the elderly Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was eliminated, leaving the country without an official leader.
The new “supreme leader,” son Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to make a public appearance aside from cardboard effigies held by Iranian officials at regime propaganda events, leading many to question his ability to run the country.
In response to Operation Epic Fury, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, has launched a barrage of missile and drone attacks against a dozen of its neighbors. In two weeks, Iran has bombed Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. Iranian officials initially insisted that they were only targeting American and Israeli assets in the region, but later relented and admitted that civilian targets were considered in the bombings.
Saudi Arabia has experienced a particularly aggressive Iranian bombing campaign, jeopardizing its lucrative oil industry, despite China claiming to broker a peace agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023. The Saudi government confirmed intercepting 51 Iranian drones on Friday alone, according to the Emirati newspaper The National. Multiple provinces in the country successfully shot down the drones, including some appearing to target the nation’s capital, Riyadh.
“Drones were shot down over Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, where authorities reported intercepting one drone, followed by three and later six more in separate incidents,” The National reported, citing the Saudi Defense Ministry. “Air defences also intercepted drones that entered Saudi airspace from other areas, destroying seven, nine, and 12 drones in three separate waves.”
The Saudi news agency Al Arabiya similarly reported the interception of dozens of drones through the country. The agency noted that, in addition to drones, Saudi military officials destroyed two ballistic missiles apparently shot from Iran towards the Prince Sultan Air Base on Thursday. That day, the Saudis reported intercepting another 24 drones apparently targeting Saudi oil fields.
The National relayed that, in addition to the attacks on Saudi Arabia, Oman and UAE reported Iranian attacks on Friday.
Iran’s attacks on its neighbors, including failed strikes on civilian targets, have outraged the region, prompting multiple incensed condemnations from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and individual affected governments. The Gulf states successfully made their case before the United Nations Security Council this week, jointly submitting a resolution that passed condemning Iran for striking its neighboring countries and declaring the attacks “a breach of international law and a serious threat to international peace and security.”
Notably, the governments of China and Russia chose not to use their veto power to stop the resolution, even though Russia had introduced a separate, and highly unpopular, resolution condemning Iran along with the United States and Israel for the ongoing conflict.
Iranian officials have insisted that the country’s strikes are legitimate and denied some of the most controversial ones. Tehran claimed, for example, that it did not bomb Azerbaijan after President Ilham Aliyev issued an outraged statement declaring that Iran would “feel the full might of our ‘Iron Fist’” following the bombing. Iran has similarly denied striking Turkey, a NATO member nation.
Speaking to reporters last week, President Trump referred to the Iranian regime repeatedly as “evil” and suggested that its own behavior had alienated it from neighbors who may have otherwise had a more favorable disposition toward it. Notably, Oman, one of the nations targeted by Iranian drones, was mediating the negotiations between Iran and the United States.
“Even the fact that they’ve attacked all of their neighbors, and the neighbors weren’t attacking. They thought they’d maybe sit it out,” Trump observed. “They’ve hit Qatar, they’ve hit UAE, they’ve hit Saudi Arabia, they’ve hit Oman — they were helping us negotiate.”
“Everybody got hit because they’re evil and they’re bad. It’s a bad seed, and somebody had to do it. And it should have been done sometime during a 47-year period,” Trump continued, “because so much death has been caused by them, so much unbelievable death… Germany, too. I mean, Germany has been hit. Everybody’s been hit by them. It’s an evil ideology.”
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