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Thai navy responds to attack on bulk carrier; sources say Iran has deployed a dozen mines in the straitHow have you been affected by the latest Middle East events?Over in Senate question time, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has confirmed embassies in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv and the consulate in Dubai all physically closed in the last week.
Wong said the government’s number one priority is to “keep Australians safe at home and abroad”.
She continued: “The dangerous and destabilising attacks by Iran put civilian lives at risk, including Australian lives.”
More than 3,200 Australians over 23 commercial flights have returned to Australia since the US and Israel attacked Iran, setting off a regional conflict and grounding thousands of international flights.Wong criticised Nationals senators for “winding up people and stoking fear” to panic buy fuel.
The senator said:“Petrol companies are telling us that fuel stock continues to arrive as expected and on time but there has been a large change in the pattern of demand and that is having an effect on the supply, particularly in regional communities. We have seen jerry cans coming off the shelves at Bunnings and lines at the pump.”One of the two members of the Iranian women’s football teams provided with a humanitarian visa to stay in Australia has changed her mind and contacted the Iranian embassy, according to the country’s home affairs minister.In Australia, people are able to change their mind, people are able to travel. So, we respect the context in which she has made that decision.Unfortunately, in making that decision, she had been advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy and get collected … As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was. Continue reading...
By serving Israel's agenda, Trump betrayed Gulf allies
Submitted by
Soumaya Ghannoushi
on
Wed, 03/11/2026 - 18:02
From Doha to Riyadh, the lesson is becoming difficult to ignore: the arrangement meant to guarantee their security is now exposing them to danger
Protesters burn portraits of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump in front of the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on 18 January 2026 (Ozan Kose/AFP)
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in doing what many in Washington once swore would never happen again: he has dragged American power back into the Middle East.
The last time this happened was in 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq. That war was driven by the ideology of the neoconservatives, who envisioned the birth of what they called the “New American Century”.
Within weeks, American forces toppled the exhausted regime of Saddam Hussein, already weakened by years of sanctions following the disastrous invasion of Kuwait.
But the apparent triumph quickly turned into something very different. The fall of Baghdad marked not the beginning of a new era of American dominance, but the start of a long descent into insurgency, instability and endless war.
The US spent trillions of dollars, lost thousands of soldiers, and watched its credibility erode across much of the world.
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Former US President Barack Obama came to power in part by promising repentance for that mistake. A broad conviction formed among sections of the American political elite that the invasion of Iraq was a grave error that must not be repeated.
That realisation helped propel Obama to the presidency, and later contributed to the populist backlash that carried Donald Trump to the White House.
Netanyahu has now succeeded in drawing Trump into the very Middle Eastern labyrinth Trump once promised to avoid.
Sustained pressure
Since Trump returned to power, Netanyahu has worked relentlessly to steer American policy towards confrontation with Iran. Through repeated visits, constant communication, and sustained political pressure - often channelled through close allies inside Trump’s circle - most notably his son-in-law, Jared Kushner - Netanyahu steadily promoted the idea that striking Iran would reshape the region and eliminate Israel’s most powerful adversary.
Eventually, the decision was made. Trump authorised military operations against Iran and initiated a campaign of targeting senior figures within its leadership.
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But it is already becoming clear that this war won't be quick, nor will it be the easy victory Netanyahu had promised. There will be no Venezuela scenario here.
Instead of shielding the region from conflict, the presence of American bases turned Gulf states into targets in a war they neither started nor wanted
The conflict was not forced upon Washington by an imminent Iranian attack on American territory. Iran does not possess strategic weapons capable of threatening the US itself.
Its nuclear programme had previously been constrained under the 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers, which limited uranium enrichment and subjected it to international monitoring. Iran accepted those restrictions until the US withdrew from the deal during Trump’s first administration.
During subsequent negotiations, Tehran even indicated a willingness to reduce enrichment levels again.
Trump himself ironically claimed only months ago that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been “obliterated” by American strikes - a statement that underscores how disconnected the rhetoric on this war is from reality.
This war was not driven by a direct threat to American national security. It emerged from a convergence of Israeli strategic calculations and a receptive American administration.
The result is an unprecedented overlap between American and Israeli military action.
Distinction blurred
For decades, Israel’s wars were formally its own, with the US providing weapons, intelligence and diplomatic backing. Today, that distinction has blurred dramatically. The two powers are now directly engaged in the same conflict.
The consequences are already visible across the Gulf, where states have built their security architecture around a simple bargain: they would invest enormous wealth into the American economy and host US military bases, in exchange for protection and stability.
The scale of that economic relationship is enormous. During Trump’s 2025 tour of the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar pledged investment commitments estimated at more than $3 trillion over time.
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Gulf capital has also flowed into projects linked to Trump’s personal and political networks. Entities connected to the UAE’s national security leadership have reportedly acquired a 49 percent stake in the Trump-linked cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, in a deal worth about $500m.
Meanwhile, Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, manages billions of dollars from Gulf sovereign wealth funds, including a $2bn commitment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, as well as major investments from Qatar and the UAE.
These financial ties form part of a broader strategic relationship, in which Gulf states purchase vast quantities of American military equipment and host major US bases across the region.
By fully adopting Netanyahu’s vision and his war, Trump has effectively betrayed Washington’s Gulf allies, ignoring the very security and stability interests that formed the foundation of that partnership. The Israeli-American war against Iran was launched without consulting the Gulf states, even though it is being fought at their doorstep.
This happened despite repeated warnings from governments in the region, which had tried in vain to dissuade Washington from escalating towards war, and had clearly outlined the dangers it would pose to their own security and stability.
Those concerns were later voiced publicly by prominent figures in the region. Influential Emirati businessman Khalaf al-Habtoor recently lambasted Trump for dragging the region into war: “Did you calculate the collateral damage before pulling the trigger?” he wrote on X. “And did you consider that the first to suffer from this escalation will be the countries of the region itself!”
Regional unease
Such statements are significant not only for their content, but also because of who is making them. Habtoor is neither an opposition figure nor an activist, but a businessman closely associated with the Gulf’s economic and political establishment.
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His intervention reflects a wider unease across the region about being drawn into a conflict whose consequences the Gulf states will bear, while the decisions on it were taken elsewhere.
Because they host American bases, troops and military infrastructure, Gulf states automatically become targets whenever the US enters a war. The very installations meant to guarantee their security instead place them directly in the line of fire.
These bases are not symbolic. They are vast military installations hosting thousands of troops, aircraft and command systems. They exist partly because Gulf governments financed their construction and maintenance, and purchased massive quantities of American weapons, under the assumption that the partnership would guarantee protection.
Yet when war arrived at their doorstep, that protection did not materialise. The protector became a source of danger.
Instead of shielding the region from conflict, the presence of American bases turned Gulf states into targets in a war they neither started nor wanted.
This realisation has begun to surface publicly across the region. On Kuwaiti television, political analyst Musaed al-Maghnam captured the irony of the situation in unusually direct terms: “They think the Americans are defending us, but today we are the ones defending the Americans.”
His remark reflected a broader frustration. Washington has drawn billions from Gulf countries, used their territories for military bases, and justified this relationship in the name of protection. For many in the region, that promise now looks like a mirage.
Growing fears
Washington has now gone further still, pressing Gulf states to join the war itself. Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump and Netanyahu, publicly urged Saudi Arabia to enter the conflict against Iran, suggesting that if Gulf states expect security agreements with the US, they should be prepared to fight alongside it.
Recent events have only deepened suspicions across the region. Israeli media circulated claims that the UAE had struck an Iranian desalination facility - a report that UAE officials quickly and firmly denied.
The allegation raised immediate alarm, as such an attack could have triggered Iranian retaliation against Gulf desalination infrastructure, which is relied upon by countries such as the UAE for the vast majority of their drinking water.
In attempting to serve Israel's agenda, the US is weakening its own position in the very region that has long sustained its global influence
For many observers in the region, the episode reinforced fears that attempts are being made to draw Gulf states into a direct confrontation with Iran - a scenario that could ignite a destructive regional conflict reminiscent of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.
Such fears are increasingly being voiced within the region itself. Saudi journalist and political analyst Adhwan al-Ahmari warned that the strategy appears aimed precisely at widening the war.
He said: “Some believe this war is an American-Israeli trap to implicate the Gulf countries and draw them into a confrontation with Iran … What if the US announces after a week, 10 days, or two weeks that it has achieved all its goals in this war and that the war is over, and then leaves the Gulf states in an open confrontation?”
Who benefits from chaos in the Middle East? Not the Gulf states. Not the Arab world.
But there is one country whose strategic thinking has long emphasised the creation of a regional vacuum: Israel.
Political fragmentation
For decades, Israeli strategists have argued that when surrounding states weaken, fragment, or descend into internal conflict, Israel’s relative power expands.
This logic has occasionally surfaced openly in Israeli commentary. In a recent article published in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli writer Meir Swissa argued that the Middle East should be reshaped through a new political fragmentation.
The article, titled “Sykes-Picot 2026: Time to redraw the Middle East map”, noted: “The inevitable finale is already visible on the horizon … The Arab and Muslim states that present themselves as Western-style nation-states may lose relevance to a model in which tribe and clan once again become the true governing units.”
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Such fragmentation might amplify Israeli power and influence, but it does not serve American interests. For decades, the US benefited from the post-Second World War order in the Middle East, effectively inheriting Britain’s former strategic role.
The Gulf, in particular, is not a peripheral theatre of American policy. It is one of the pillars of American global influence. The region sits at the centre of global energy markets, hosts some of Washington’s most important overseas military facilities, and represents a critical source of investment in the American economy.
The partnership has long rested on a simple understanding: access and cooperation in exchange for security and stability. That arrangement is now under strain.
By aligning itself completely with Israel and allowing Netanyahu’s strategy to shape American policy, the Trump administration risks destabilising the very architecture that underpins American influence in the region, and the partners upon whom its power depends.
The longer this war continues, the clearer the strategic paradox becomes. In attempting to serve Israel’s agenda, the US is weakening its own position in the very region that has long sustained its global influence.
For the Gulf states, the lesson is becoming difficult to ignore: the arrangement meant to guarantee their security is now exposing them to danger. And for the US, the question that will increasingly arise will no longer be about Iran.
It will be about Israel: whether implementing its strategy is protecting Washington’s interests, or steadily eroding them.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
War on Iran
Opinion
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Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29
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Outdated targeting data may have resulted in a mistaken missile strike, according to the ongoing military investigation, which undercuts President Trump’s assertion that Iran could be to blame.