The UK-based news website Middle East Eye cited unnamed sources as saying that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Kuwait had called on the US not to use American military bases on their territories to strike in response to any potential Iranian attack against Israel.
“The US’s Persian Gulf allies are working overtime to shut down avenues that could link them to a US reprisal against Tehran … from bases inside their kingdoms,” a senior US official told MEE on condition of anonymity.
The Persian Gulf countries have reportedly raised questions about the intricate details of basing agreements that permit tens of thousands of American troops to be stationed across the oil-rich peninsula.
They are also moving to prevent US warplanes from flying over their airspace in the event the Washington conducts a retaliatory strike on Tehran in support of Israel following the regime’s deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria early in the month.
The reluctance of the Persian Gulf states comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration is bracing for a response to a potential Iranian attack on the illegal entity, with current and former American officials stressing that the retaliatory attack is imminent.
On April 1, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, located next to the embassy building in Damascus’s Mezzeh district.
The aggression killed two senior Iranian military personnel who were on an advisory mission to Syria as well as five of their accompanying officers.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the IRGC Quds Force, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven martyrs of the terrorist attack.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran will “punish” Israel and make the evil regime “regret” its crime.
MP/PessTV