Hours After Pledging Good Relations, Iran Strikes Bahrain, UAE, and Qatar with Missiles and Drones
Iran reportedly launched new missile and drone attacks on Bahrain, the UAE, and Qatar, hours after Iranian officials emphasized friendly relations with neighboring states amid escalating regional tensions.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Iran launched a new wave of missile and drone attacks targeting Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar on Saturday, according to media reports, despite earlier statements by Iranian officials emphasizing friendly relations with neighboring countries.
According to the French news agency AFP, powerful explosions were heard in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.
At the same time, the UAE Ministry of Defense announced that the country’s air defense systems intercepted several ballistic missiles and drones that had been launched from Iran.
In Qatar, the Interior Ministry declared a high security alert and urged residents to remain inside their homes, as air defense systems were heard intercepting aerial targets over the skies of Doha.
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense reported that within the past 48 hours it had recorded 14 ballistic missiles and 23 drones moving through the region’s airspace.
The reported attacks come shortly after Masoud Pezeshkian, President of Iran, issued a message stating that Tehran does not seek hostility with its neighbors and apologized for any harm that may have affected nearby countries.
However, Pezeshkian also warned regional governments to prevent groups from using their territories to threaten Iran’s security.
Earlier Saturday, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a senior military command of Iran, issued a warning to the United States and Israel.
Its spokesperson, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, said Iran would target any location that serves as a launch point for attacks against Iranian territory.
He stressed that Iran has not targeted the sovereignty or national interests of neighboring countries so far, but warned that any place used as a starting point for attacks on Iran would become a “legitimate target.”
Zolfaghari added that countries which do not provide facilities or airspace to Iran’s adversaries would not become targets.
The latest escalation follows major strikes carried out on Feb. 28 by the United States and Israel against Tehran and several Iranian locations.
Those attacks reportedly killed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, along with several senior commanders of the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, pushing the region toward a broader conflict affecting multiple countries including Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
The attacks mark a further escalation in the growing regional confrontation, as multiple Middle Eastern states are increasingly drawn into the widening conflict.