The scene is being set for Iran to attack GCC civilian infrastructure, just as they threatened to if the US attacked their civilian infrastructure (and which the US did overnight and over the past days). Of course, Iran will be the aggressor on paper and electronic ink. But the GCC government will know that the attacks are because the US and Israel attacked Iran, without any notice or agreement from them.
But that is not what is being reported today. Trump gave his Election Fraud speech and didn’t declare that Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were illegitimate Senators. That’s a relief. He did claim that China tried to interfere with the 2020 election and released declassified documents that show that Russia tried to help him in 2020.
Meanwhile, the US bombed civilian infrastructure in Iran, exactly what Iran said would result in their striking civilian infrastructure in the Gulf countries.
This is from Al Jazeera this morning:
The United States military has launched hundreds of air attacks across Iran over the past week, killing at least 35 people and wounding 300, according to Iranian health officials.
The US, which has reimposed a naval blockade on Iran, said it targeted military sites along the country’s southern coast and near the Strait of Hormuz, despite a ceasefire agreement.
Iran, meanwhile, carried out attacks on US military facilities across the region, raising fears of a return to all-out war.
Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem al-Budaiwi on Wednesday condemned Iran’s “treacherous” attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, including strikes on infrastructure and facilities that injured Kuwaiti military personnel, saying they risked dragging the region into “further chaos and instability”.
It is worth looking at some of the statements in there. “Hundreds of air attacks across Iran” - and yet, the following paragraph includes “despite a ceasefire agreement”. The third paragraph says, “attacks on US military site” and “fears of a return to all-out-war".
The US attack “despite”, yet Iran’s response threatens a “return” to all-out-war. Subtle, but not subtle allocation of accountability to the attacks.
But equally important is that Iran is reported, not by Iran but by Al Jazeera, as striking US military sites. Then in the final paragraph above, the GCC Secretary General condemns Iran’s “treacherous” attacks.
Even the GCC understands the contradiction in what they are saying, and they know that no matter how hard they attempt to paint Iran as the aggressor, they know that the US and Israel started this war. Allies inform allies when they are about to start a war, especially if they will need those allies’ airspace and ground facilities to carry out their attacks.
They know that attacks on their civilian infrastructure, threatening millions of people, will happen because the US continues its war, because Trump has no way out of the war he started. They will be the ‘collateral damage’ resulting from Trump’s folly.
Up until now, the GCC has been willing to “go along” with the American/Israeli war because the cost to them has been financial (temporarily, they expect). The attacks on their territories have been, on the whole, attacks on American bases housed in their territories, with some direct attacks for optics (hotels in Dubai) or responses to attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure (the attack on the Ras Laffan natural gas facilities in Qatar). The GCC know that American attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure could unleash Iranian responses against any of their own infrastructure, not just American bases.
The frantic behind-the-scenes diplomacy right now is not about getting Iran and the US back to the negotiating table; they know there is zero trust left. The frantic diplomacy is about how to bring Trump and Hegseth to heel. How can they force Trump and Hegseth to stop their war, a war that could kill millions in the GCC (and Iran) and beyond?
But in Washington, attention is distracted by worn-out lies about the 2020 election in anticipation of declaring the 2026 midterm elections to be “rigged” and therefore void in some way or other.
Nothing is being done in Washington to reduce the impact of Trump’s war, a war that will continue to blow back on him, his administration, and his sycophants in Congress. In fact, they are doing everything they can to expand the war, to force otherwise sidelined (but under the gun) allies into the war.
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