Cairo: The Trump administration is confronting mounting discontent from allies in the Persian Gulf who have complained they were not given adequate time to prepare for the torrent of Iranian drones and missiles bombarding their countries in retaliation for strikes launched by the US and Israel.
Officials from two Gulf countries said their governments were disappointed in the way the US has handled the war, particularly the initial attack on Iran on February 28. They said their countries were not given advance notice of the US-Israeli attack and complained the US had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region.
One of the officials said that Gulf countries were frustrated and even angry that the US military has not defended them enough. He said there is belief in the region that the operation has focused on defending Israel and American troops, while leaving Gulf countries to protect themselves, and said that his country’s stock of interceptors was “rapidly depleting.”
Like others in this story, the Gulf officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing a confidential diplomatic matter.
The governments of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates did not respond to requests for comment.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in response: “Iran’s retaliatory ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90% because Operation Epic Fury is crushing their ability to shoot these weapons or produce more. President Trump is in close contact with all of our regional partners, and the terrorist Iranian regime’s attacks on its neighbours prove how imperative it was that President Trump eliminate this threat to our country and our allies.”
The Pentagon did not respond.
Official reactions by the Gulf Arab countries have been muted, but public figures with close ties to their governments have been openly critical of the US, suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dragged President Donald Trump into a needless war.
“This is Netanyahu’s war,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief, told CNN. “He somehow convinced the president (Trump) to support his views.”
Pentagon officials conceded this week in closed-door briefings with lawmakers they are struggling to stop waves of drones launched by Iran, leaving some US targets in the Gulf region, including troops, vulnerable.
The Gulf countries have emerged as valuable targets for Iran, well within the range of Iran’s short-range missiles and filled with targets, including American troops, high-profile business and tourist locations and energy facilities, disrupting the world’s flow of oil.
Since the start of the war, Iran has fired at least 380 missiles and more than 1,480 drones targeting the five Arab Gulf countries, according to an AP tally based on official statements. At least 13 people have been killed in those countries, according to local officials.
In addition, six US soldiers were killed in Kuwait when an Iranian drone strike hit an operations centre in a civilian port, more than 10 miles from the main Army base. The husband of one of the slain soldiers, who was part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa, said the operations centre was a shipping container-style building and had no defences.
