The breadth of the Middle East conflict came into sharp focus over the weekend as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain all reported Iranian strikes, while global oil prices crossed $100 per barrel for the first time in years. The scale of the attacks on Gulf states represented a dramatic expansion of a war that had begun between Israel and Iran alone.
Israeli strikes on oil storage facilities near Tehran had triggered Iran’s campaign against Gulf states, killing four workers and blanketing the capital in smoke. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that Gulf nations had a choice: press Israel and the United States to halt their attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure or face the continued targeting of their own.
Saudi Arabia intercepted 15 incoming drones, a desalination plant in Bahrain was hit, and two civilians were killed in a residential strike in the Saudi city of Al-Kharj. A US service member died from wounds sustained in an Iranian attack on American forces stationed in Saudi Arabia, bringing the American death toll to seven.
Iran’s clerical assembly appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader amid the fighting, selecting the son of the late Ali Khamenei in a move that critics described as a betrayal of the Islamic Republic’s founding principles. The assembly called on Iranians to rally behind the new leader, arguing that national unity was essential at a critical moment.
Washington pledged not to target Iranian oil infrastructure and predicted only brief supply disruptions. But with five Gulf nations under fire, oil above $100, and Iranian military operations showing no signs of slowing, the assurances from Washington were being tested against a rapidly deteriorating reality on the ground.