TEHRAN: Tehran has warned the allies of the United States in the Middle East of consequences if their territories or airspace are used for an attack on Iran. The threats have prompted the oil-rich Arab states to tell the US that they won’t aid any attack on Iran.
Israel has threatened Tehran with a severe reprisal after Iran fired about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month, with some Israeli officials and commentators pushing for damaging strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure. In that event, Iran has warned it would respond with devastating hits on Israel’s civilian infrastructure, and would retaliate against any Arab state that facilitated the attack, Arab officials were quoted in an exclusive report by The Wall Street Journal.
The Arab officials, according to the WSJ, said the countries that Iran has threatened through diplomatic channels include Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all of which host US troops. These states have told the Biden administration that they don’t want their military infrastructure or airspace to be used by the US or Israel for any offensive operations against Iran, the officials said.
While the Iranian threats are vague, they have raised concerns in energy-rich Persian Gulf states that their oil facilities—long viewed as protected by an American security umbrella—could be hit, the Arab officials said. US military installations and forces in the region could also be at risk in a region with one of the highest concentrations of American troops in the world, they added.
The escalating conflict in the Middle East is straining the alignment of Arab states and Israel, which all oppose Iran’s military posture in the region. The US is the backbone of this bloc, and harbors hopes that in the future it could be a sort of Middle East NATO, aligned around countering Iran rather than Russia. Arab states including Jordan helped shoot down Iranian projectiles headed for Israel in April, but supporting a direct Israeli strike on Iran may be a step too far.