Gulf Countries Brace for Probable all-Out Conflict Between US and Iran
Gulf countries and the wider Middle East are bracing for a possible return of hostilities in the Iran war amid multiple warnings at the same time and media reports of rising intensity and detail, coupled with a huge US military build-up in the Gulf and Israeli and Iranian armies on high alert, raising fears of an imminent escalation with devastating consequences for the region.
News agencies and the wider media reported a new travel alert issued by the US Department of State on Wednesday evening, amid increased speculation during the last weeks that the US and Israel may undertake a new attack on Iran before or after the mid-term elections in the US and the elections in Israel next week, as an urgent signal as to the imminence of war restarting, with the Gulf nations paying the price of a potentially larger conflict.
The US State Department said non-essential US federal employees and their families had been instructed to leave Saudi Arabia, “due to the potential for the hostilities to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area”.
A number of diplomatic sources told many news outlets that families of embassy officials in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain were also to out. With Israeli elections just days away, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing the prospect of losing power, and next month’s US midterm elections looming, with prices high and the war fuelling voter anger, fears and conjecture are increasing that US-Israeli attacks on Iran could restart.
The US has been deploying more military assets to the region, including a third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops, to join the largest US naval and aviation force in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as the country rebuilds a significant strike force in the Gulf.
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