Why Iran targets the Gulf states
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Why Iran targets the Gulf states is John Kiriakou's answer to a question put to him during the 2026 Iran war: why Iranian strikes fell so much more heavily on the Gulf Arab states than on Israel, beyond the fact that the Gulf is closer.

His first answer is defensive coverage. The Gulf states "don't have Iron Dome", so "if you only have a certain number of missiles, you want to make them count."

His second is political. Gulf,Iranian relations had long been "this uneasy coexistence" on top of mutual hostility, "Gulf states and Iran have always hated each other", but hosting the war's infrastructure ended the ambiguity: "if the Gulf states are going to sponsor and house American troops and airmen and ships and all that stuff, then the Iranians are all in."

He adds the Abraham Accords as an aggravating factor, agreeing that they "must have driven them absolutely crazy" and calling them the thing that "added insult to injury."

The consequences for Qatar specifically are at the Ras Laffan strike and South Pars and the North Dome.

See also

- The Iron Dome
- Abraham Accords
- The Ras Laffan Strike
- Iranian strikes on Gulf hotels
