As the atrocities of the US and its Zionist ally mounted in and beyond Tehran, and barely three hours after their assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei and his family, Iranian missiles struck the service centre of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. Three other US air bases were targeted in these opening manoeuvres: al-Udeid base in Qatar, Ali al-Salem in Kuwait and al-Dhafra in the UAE. US army personnel were killed and wounded in drone strikes on a tactical operations centre at the Shuaiba port, outside Kuwait City. In Iraqi Kurdistan, the US Consulate General was among targeted institutions, while Saudi authorities reported Iranian rocket attacks and promised to retain ‘the option of responding to aggression.’
The ensuing economic paralysis exposed the Gulf monarchies as totally dependent on imperialism and culpable. In the following hours and days, regional air travel ground to a standstill in and beyond the Gulf. The New York Times reported on 11 March that 17 US military sites had been hit by Iranian strikes. The daily output of regional oil producers had declined from 21 million to 14 million barrels by 17 March, rocketing global oil prices. S&P Global Energy reported critical shortages of naphtha, a crude oil derivative used in plastic manufacturing, affecting economies as far as Japan and South Korea.
Imperialist bases and web of interests
What the Iranian response exposed above all is the web of imperialist control, linked to compliant ruling classes across the region. Before the assault on Iran, US imperialism had 19 official bases and up to 50,000 troops stationed across the Middle East. This does not include a network of smaller bases in Syria and other locations, and fortified ‘diplomatic’ complexes, such as the ‘Green Zone’ housing the US embassy in Baghdad, set up after the invasion of 2003.
British imperialism has clear regional interests. Britain has three military sites described as ‘permanent’ across the Middle East: the UK Naval Support Facility in Bahrain, Duqm logistics hub and naval base in Oman, and a military centre at al-Minhad air base in the UAE. While Britain’s main base for fighter jets and regional intervention is RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, it also has access to the US al-Udeid air base in Qatar. The RAF has a joint squadron with Qatari air forces and both have acted to shoot down Iranian drones.
The ruling classes of Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Syria all likewise host imperialist bases and economic interests. Though their relations with the Zionist state often appear opaque, their roles as footholds for US regional interests are held in common with the Israeli occupation. The Gulf regimes act as hubs of finance capital and resources, while reacting brutally to any whiff of dissent or revolution; they are armed to the teeth by imperialism for this very reason.
The fightback
Despite unanimity against Iran among Gulf capitalists, where the Arab masses have moved, they have done so against imperialism:
- On 1 March, Iraqis attempting to storm the Green Zone and US embassy were met with tear gas and brutality. US and Israeli airstrikes have targeted insurgent groups across Iraq. At the time of writing, these organisations are mounting daily attacks on US occupying forces.
- In Bahrain, the war on Iran has reignited the mass movement against US and British presence, ruling class complicity and dictatorship. Protests have taken place in cities and villages across the country, met with a violent crackdown and dozens of arrests.
- Tens of thousands of Yemenis took to the streets on 13 March for al-Quds day, with huge mobilisations happening throughout the Iran con-frontation. Though Yemen remains impoverished from imperialist isolation and US, British, Israeli, Saudi and Emirati bombings, on the night of 27 March the forces of Ansarallah joined the fight, launching a barrage of missiles on military sites in southern Israel.
Arab ruling classes embroiled in imperialist capital have only begun to pay the price of their complicity. In a region whose very borders and ‘independence’ were stamped with the domination of oil-thirsty European and US imperialism, the real question is where and how far these flames will spread.
