Gulf countries 'raging' they're 'collateral damage' in Trump's Iran bombing campaign
Gulf countries targeted by Iran after the U.S. and Israel attacks were reportedly frustrated by the escalating regional conflict, an analyst revealed Tuesday.
CNN's political and national security analyst David Sanger described how Iran's objective is to put financial pressure on the countries allied with the United States and Israel in the fallout over the military strikes, all while midterm elections loom for President Donald Trump.
"Look, the Iranians have one big mission here: it's survive," Sanger said. "If they're going to survive, they have to wait out President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. If they're going to wait out President Trump, it means they need to make it painful enough, long enough that he's beginning to get toward the elections. You're beginning to see significant casualties. And it gets back to that question that Steve Witkoff, his chief envoy, asked about a week before the war broke out. During the negotiations, he said, 'The president is curious about why the Iranians haven't capitulated.' Well, the answer is that the whole meaning and purpose of the current Iranian state is to stand in opposition to the U.S., and so it's not as if, even with the loss of the Supreme Leader, that they're just going to say, 'well, this is over.'"
He also suggested what other types of attacks could come next from Iran.
"They've got other techniques, cyber [attacks]. We haven't begun to see anything here in the United States. I hope we don't. But I wouldn't be shocked if we did."
Several Gulf nations, which were not reportedly prepared for the attacks, have also had furious reactions to the conflict behind the scenes, Sanger said. Iran could also be looking at what countries are important to the American economy and aiming to target those economic hubs.
"Well, look, the U.S. is their major patron," Sanger added. "You know eight months ago, what were we discussing with UAE? With the UAE, how many data centers we're going to build there? Right. So the Iranian strategy at this point is not necessarily to go after U.S. bases. It's to go after the financial engines of these countries and say the price for sticking with the U.S. is high in public. They have been very supportive of the U.S. so far. In private, they have been raging, angry that they weren't consulted on the start of this war to begin with, right? Many of them didn't even know what the start date was going to be, so they feel like they are sort of collateral damage in President Trump's confrontation with the Iranians, which many of them don't think is timed right."
