US-Iran tensions: Arab states and Israel navigate tightrope
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US-Iran tensions: Arab states and Israel navigate tightrope
DW-Jan 31st 2926
22 hours ago
Over the past week, the uncertainty over potential US military action against Iran has continued to shape strategic steps across the region.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both close US allies who also maintain ties with Tehran, said they won’t allow their airspace be used for any attack, regardless of the origin.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty — whose country has thawed ties with Iran but is yet to reach a full diplomatic level — spoke with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi as well as with US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff to “work toward achieving calm, in order to avoid the region slipping into new cycles of instability.”
Meanwhile, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and some 10 US guided missile destroyers, capable of launching attacks from the sea, has arrived in the region, as noted by shipping tracking site MarineTraffic.
The Iranian state-owned news media organization Press TV announced that beginning next week, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval forces will start live-fire exercises in the same waters, the Strait of Hormuz, which links Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations, meanwhile, posted on X that “Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests — BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!”
In line with that, Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote on X that a “‘limited strike’ is an illusion.”
He stated that “any military action by the United States — from any origin and at any level — would be considered an act of war and the response would be immediate, all out, and unprecedented, targeting the heart of Tel Aviv and all those supporting the aggressor.”
For Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, the latest decisions by US President Donald Trump indicate that economic relief and reintegration remain possible, “but only after Iran accepts permanent and verifiable constraints on its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes alongside shifts in its regional behaviour,” she wrote in an op-ed on the think tank’s website.
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