The fighting that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu started in Iran over the weekend is still raging. But Iran is not taking the hits lying down.
In the last 48 hours, Iran has been firing missiles at locations of US interest in the Middle East. Among the affected areas are the UAE, Manama, the capital of Bahrain, and Doha, the capital of Qatar. Dubai has also been hit. Three American military personnel are said to have been killed in these attacks.
In the meantime, Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist paramilitary group in Lebanon, allied to the Iranian regime, has launched a rocket aimed at an Israeli military base in the north. The reason they gave was retaliation for the killing of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump Determined to Crush Iran
US President Donald Trump is adamant that the strikes on Iran will continue despite Iran’s efforts to fight back. Even though the US and Israel initiated the current fight, he says he is going to avenge the killing of the US citizens.
He and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are pleased with their attack on Iran. They are particularly happy that other Iranian senior-ranking individuals have died in the strikes, including Iran’s army chief and the country’s defense minister.
There are Signs the Fighting Could Escalate
Although elated by the killing of the 86-year-old Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump and Netanyahu may not have anticipated the level of retaliation Iran has taken up.
It is now feared that Iran might spread its attacks to other parts of the Middle East known to be friendly to the US. Already, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of America’s greatest allies, has suffered casualties. Three people have been reported dead from Iran’s strikes.
UAE is a great partner to the US, not only in economic matters but also on security issues. It is one of those countries that hosts US forces on the ground for strategic security measures.
Trump Has Acted Against his Stated Foreign Policy
The US president has always criticized many of his recent predecessors for purporting to try solve the problem in the Middle East. In May last year, he told foreign leaders that some US presidents had intervened in the Middle East situation, even though they hardly understood it.
Now that he has unilaterally started a war on Iran, even without a green light from Congress, many see it as going against his declared foreign policy. Analysts say he has acted just like the interventionist he has always criticized, George W. Bush.
A scholar at the Washington DC’s Center for International Policy, Negar Mortazavi, has termed this war one “of choice”; a war that the US did not have to initiate. He also says that the only clear beneficiary of this war is Israel. While speaking to Al Jazeera, Mortazavi noted that for the last 10 years, Israel has been prodding other US presidents to attack Iran, but they resisted. Only Donald Trump has caved in to Netanyahu’s prodding.
The Conflict Could Have a Global Impact
The UAE says that the victims of the recent strikes in the country were not Arabs but Pakistani, Nepalese, and Bangladeshi. However, regardless of the victims’ nationalities, the threat to the region remains significant.
This region, including Qatar and Dubai, hosts people of all nationalities. Dubai is particularly an economic hub, and life is likely to change dramatically if this war continues. As it were, the countries affected by Iran’s missiles are making efforts to defend themselves by launching interceptors. As a result, the atmosphere in those areas is marked by dark smoke billowing all over the sky.
It is also worth noting that Hezbollah has vowed to protect Lebanon and its people, even as Israel hits back at the Hezbollah base. The Lebanese group is also said to have sent out attacking drones to Israel, not just the rockets, and now Israel is retaliating with missiles. In the meantime, Israel continues to bombard Tehran with missiles.
The Role of Iran’s Allies Cannot be Ignored.
The role of Hezbollah and other allies of Iran cannot be underestimated. Already, the over 11,000 rockets, drones, and missiles that Hezbollah has launched at Israel since 2023 have rendered Israel’s northern region uninhabitable. More than 60,000 people who lived there had to leave, amidst damaged infrastructure.
Will Foreigners in the Gulf Region Evacuate?
How long it is going to take before foreigners begin to evacuate from the Gulf, only time will tell. With the region’s private sector sourcing the biggest proportion of its personnel from South Asia and Africa, making their stay untenable could destabilize these economies.
For now, news coming in indicates that a US military aircraft has crashed in Kuwait. Images can be seen in CNN videos. In the wake of the incident, Kuwait, a key US ally, points out that the entire US crew onboard the affected aircraft survived.