Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are growing increasingly vocal in denouncing Iran for its wanton attacks on their cities and oil infrastructure, although they have yet to commit to aggressive military action against Tehran.
Bahrain submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday condemning Iran for its “egregious attacks” against itself and fellow Gulf Arab states, and demanding Iran “immediately and unconditionally” end its “provocations and threats to neighboring countries.”
Speaking for the rest of the GCC, Bahrain called Iran’s missile and drone strikes a “heinous” violation of international law, and a “serious threat to international peace and security.”
The resolution noted that Iran is deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, “including airports, energy installations, objects necessary for food production and distribution, and critical civilian infrastructure.”
Bahrain said the GCC states reserved the right to act in “individual or collective self-defense in response to the deplorable armed attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The draft resolution also threatened to use military force to protect the region’s oil shipments from Iranian strikes.
An unnamed official from the UAE told The National on Sunday that, while the GCC favors cessation of all hostilities and a return to the negotiating table, Iran’s wanton missile attacks against its neighbors have demonstrated that Tehran’s years of claiming it only seeks defensive weapons were lies, and neighboring states will want Iran’s non-nuclear missile program to be on the negotiating table.
“Any new negotiated settlement with Iran will no longer be confined to the nuclear aspect. Missiles are now center stage, because missiles now are not seen as self-defense,” the official said.
The Emirati official said his country has long prepared for regional hostilities, including attacks from Iran, but was somewhat surprised by the scale of Tehran’s unprovoked attacks.
“Time has proven that we have been ready for it, but definitely we did not expect it. We did not think that Iran would actually risk the relations of all its neighbors,” the official said, adding that Iran seemed equally surprised by the effectiveness of air defenses in the Gulf states.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) issued a statement on Monday condemning Iranian attacks against the GCC states and other “Arab, Islamic, and friendly countries.”
“Targeting civilian objects, airports, and oil facilities reflects nothing but a determination to threaten security and stability, and to persist in blatantly violating international charters and international law,” the Saudi statement said.
“The Kingdom affirms that the continued Iranian attacks represent further escalation, with significant implications for bilateral relations, both now and in the future,” the statement said, warning that Tehran would be the “greatest loser” from such escalation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani of Qatar called Iran’s attacks on its Gulf neighbors a “dangerous miscalculation” in an interview with Sky News on Monday.
“It is a big sense of betrayal. Just an hour after the start of the war, Qatar and other Gulf countries have been attacked. We made clear that we were not going to take part in any wars against our neighbors,” he said.
“We have always tried to preserve a good relationship with Iran, but the justifications and pretexts they are using are completely rejected,” he said.
“The miscalculation by the Iranians to attack Gulf countries has destroyed everything,” he complained, pointing out that many of Iran’s attacks are blatantly targeting civilian facilities in neighboring countries.
The Saudi statement also rejected Iran’s assertions that the Gulf states were actively helping the United States and Israel to conduct Operation Epic Fury. For all of their professed ire at Iran for launching mad-dog attacks against their cities and oil refineries, the Gulf states have yet to retaliate in any meaningful way, apparently desperate to preserve the talking point that they are not involved in the war against Iran.
The National quoted Middle Eastern advisers and analysts who said the GCC nations would continue to exercise extreme “restraint” while Iran takes potshots at them, ostensibly because they want to preserve their status as neutral observers who might help to broker a ceasefire between Iran, the United States, and Israel.
Emirati officials are currently hustling to deny an Israeli media report on Sunday that the UAE participated in a retaliatory strike against an Iranian desalination plant in the Strait of Hormuz. Some officials in the UAE implied that Israel was creating “fake news” about the attack to drag the Emirates into the war.
The U.S. and Israel have both said they did not attack the plant. Iran attacked a desalination plant in Bahrain on Sunday, apparently in retaliation for the putative strike on Iran’s plant in the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Al Jazeera News on Sunday observed that some of the less fanatical Iranian leaders are growing queasy about the “attack everyone” strategy, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, who tried to apologize for some of the strikes – and was promptly chastised by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Pezeskhian was intimidated into apologizing for his apology, echoing IRGC propaganda to claim all of Iran’s attacks on Arab states have “targeted U.S. military bases, facilities, and installations in the region.”
Al Jazeera speculated that Pezeshkian’s aborted apology was actually directed at Turkey and Azerbaijan, two of Iran’s more surprising targets, given that they have been friendly to Iran. Azeris have a sizable ethnic population inside Iran, and Turkey has a formidable military, so those targets have been major gut-check moments for Iranian leaders.
Iran attacked Turkey with a ballistic missile for the second time on Monday and the missile was once again intercepted by NATO air defenses. Turkey appears to be content with vague warnings about how “necessary” and “decisive” measures will be taken to neutralize threats to its territory and airspace, at least so long as Iran’s missiles are successfully intercepted.
Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the Gulf states are willing to suck up some drone and missile hits without retaliating because “siding with Israel to bomb another Muslim state” would “entail political consequences.”
The Sunni-run Gulf states tend to have restless Shiite minorities that could easily be inflamed by their local monarchy teaming up with Israel to bomb the Shiite superpower. Bahrain, for example, has already seen some Shiite demonstrations of solidarity with Iran.
The Soufan Center on Saturday worried that Iran might be succeeding at opening a rift between the GCC states and America, by demonstrating that the cost of working with the U.S. can be substantial, and the U.S. cannot completely protect its allies from Iranian mischief.
“It is likely that Gulf and Iranian diplomats are back-channeling on how to prevent further Iranian attacks on their territory, which have had severe economic repercussions regionally and globally. Such discussion likely centers on the role and presence of U.S. military infrastructure in the Gulf states,” the Center said.
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