After apologizing to its neighbors, Iran launched more missiles. Is the Gulf now fully in the war?

Missiles and Drones Hit Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait as Tehran Vows to Continue Targeting Regional “Enemy Sites”

Iran pressed ahead with missile and drone attacks across the Gulf on Sunday, even as its president sought to soften earlier remarks that had been interpreted as a pledge to suspend strikes on neighboring states.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait all reported new aerial assaults as the war entered its second week.

Loud explosions were heard over Dubai and Manama a day earlier, and air defenses across the region were activated again overnight.

Kuwait said its military intercepted several drones and missiles. The country’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” reduction in crude production after fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport were targeted in a drone strike. Authorities said a fire at the airport was quickly contained and there were no significant injuries.

An apology in the morning — a warning by night. Is Iran widening the war?

Tehran Signals Continued Attacks on Regional States It Accuses of Assisting US-Israeli Operations.

Iran signaled a harder line on Saturday, with senior officials declaring that attacks on neighboring countries will continue if their territory is used — openly or covertly — in operations against Tehran.

Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, Iran’s judiciary chief and a member of the interim leadership council, said “heavy attacks” would persist against regional targets that provide what he described as “points… used in aggression against our country.”

“Evidence from Iran’s armed forces shows that the geography of some countries in the region is openly and covertly at the disposal of the enemy,” Mohseni-Ejei said. “The government and other pillars of the system are in agreement.”

The comments came hours after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a more conciliatory tone, apologizing to Gulf neighbors for earlier strikes and promising restraint unless their territory was directly used to launch attacks on Iran.

Gulf governments have denied allowing their soil to be used in US or Israeli strikes and have repeatedly said they seek to avoid being drawn into the conflict.

Despite those assurances, Iranian forces have targeted sites across the Gulf since US-Israeli airstrikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28. Some attacks have struck civilian infrastructure.

Thirteen people, including seven civilians, have been killed in Gulf countries since the war began. Among them was an 11-year-old girl in Kuwait who died after being hit by falling debris in a residential neighborhood.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, reinforced the confrontational message, arguing that “as long as American bases exist in the region, countries will not see peace.”

The dual messaging — apology paired with escalation — reflects Tehran’s balancing act. On one hand, it seeks to deter regional cooperation with Washington. On the other, it risks pushing wary Gulf states closer to the United States by widening the battlefield.

For Gulf capitals that have long tried to insulate themselves from direct confrontation, the warning sharpens an already stark choice: maintain neutrality under fire, or openly align in a war they insist is not theirs.

As Iran Conflict Escalates, Satellite Jamming and Spoofing Disrupt Shipping, Aviation, and Global Trade.

When ships think they’re at airports and planes “drift” off course, the battlefield has gone digital.

Within hours of the first U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, a different kind of weapon began reshaping the conflict — not missiles, but signals.

Commercial vessels navigating Gulf waters suddenly appeared to be located at airports, nuclear facilities or deep inland. The culprit was widespread jamming and spoofing of global navigation satellite systems, the digital backbone that keeps ships, planes and drones on course.

According to maritime intelligence firm Windward, more than 1,100 commercial vessels in UAE, Qatari, Omani and Iranian waters experienced navigation disruptions in the first 24 hours after hostilities began. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow artery that carries roughly 20% of the world’s oil and gas — slowed sharply. Some tankers reversed course. Others went dark, switching off their Automatic Identification System (AIS), the transponder designed to prevent collisions.

“You don’t know where ships are,” said Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward. “The whole point of AIS is collision avoidance.”

The tactic itself is simple. Militaries broadcast high-powered radio signals on the same frequencies used by satellite navigation tools. Jamming blocks the signal; spoofing manipulates it, feeding false coordinates to receivers. The result can be vessels moving in strange geometric “crop circles” on tracking maps or appearing thousands of miles from their actual position.

Data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence recorded 1,735 GPS interference events affecting 655 vessels in just a few days. Daily incidents have nearly doubled since the conflict began.

The practice is not new. Satellite interference became common during Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, where drone warfare surged. But experts say the problem has now become “endemic” in conflict-adjacent regions such as the Baltic, Black Sea and Middle East.

Ramsey Faragher, director of the Royal Institute of Navigation, describes jamming as an “easy shield” against GPS-guided drones. The complication is that the electronic fog affects everything else in the area — commercial ships, civilian aircraft, even rescue equipment.

The aviation sector is already feeling the strain. The International Air Transport Association reports a 220% rise in global GPS signal loss events affecting aircraft between 2021 and 2024. Pilots have described cockpit displays “drifting away from reality,” with map shifts and false altitude warnings increasing workload during critical flight phases.

The vulnerability stems from physics. GPS signals weaken dramatically as they travel more than 20,000 kilometers from orbit, making them relatively easy to overpower. While Europe’s Galileo system now offers authentication features, most civilian satellite signals remain largely unprotected.

The stakes extend beyond inconvenience. Modern ships rely heavily on automation. Younger mariners often have less experience navigating by radar, visual watchkeeping or celestial methods. Interference can also trigger compliance alarms if a vessel’s spoofed location appears inside sanctioned territory.

The most alarming scenario is humanitarian. If a vessel were struck and crew forced to abandon ship, emergency beacons dependent on satellite positioning could transmit false coordinates, delaying rescue.

Satellite navigation transformed global trade by making positioning instantaneous and precise. But as the Gulf conflict demonstrates, that era of assumed reliability is ending.

Electronic warfare has moved from the margins to the mainstream. And in this war, the most powerful weapon may be the one no one can see.

President Masoud Pezeshkian Apologizes to Gulf States, Says Tehran Will Only Retaliate if Attacked.

An apology — and a warning. Is Iran signaling de-escalation or drawing a new red line?

Iran signaled a potential shift in its regional posture on Saturday, with President Masoud Pezeshkian announcing that Tehran will suspend strikes on neighboring countries unless attacks are launched from their territory.

In a speech broadcast on state television, Pezeshkian declared that Iran would “never surrender” to Israel or the United States as the Middle East war entered its second week. At the same time, he offered an apology to regional states hit by Iranian missiles and drones in recent days.

“I must apologize on my own behalf and on behalf of Iran to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran,” Pezeshkian said. He added that the interim leadership council had agreed that “no more attacks will be made on neighboring countries and no missiles will be fired unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries.”

The remarks come after Israel and the United States launched coordinated strikes on February 28 that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and triggered a broader regional conflict. Iran responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. interests across the Gulf.

Pezeshkian is one of three members of an interim leadership council governing Iran following Khamenei’s death. His dual message — defiance toward Washington and Tel Aviv coupled with an overture to neighbors — suggests Tehran is attempting to contain the geographic spread of the war while maintaining a posture of resistance.

Regional capitals have been wary of being drawn into direct confrontation. Iranian strikes on Gulf cities in recent days rattled energy markets and raised fears of further escalation around critical infrastructure and shipping lanes.

By pledging to halt attacks unless provoked from neighboring territory, Tehran appears to be drawing a narrower line: retaliation will be tied explicitly to perceived participation in attacks on Iran.

Whether this declaration marks genuine de-escalation or a tactical pause remains uncertain. Much will depend on whether regional states allow their bases or airspace to be used in ongoing operations — and how Iran defines an “originating” attack.

For now, the message is calibrated: no surrender, but conditional restraint.

AP Reports Moscow Shared Information That Could Help Tehran Strike US Assets as Gulf War Escalates.

Is the Iran war quietly becoming a US–Russia proxy showdown?

Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran target U.S. warships, aircraft and other military assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with American intelligence assessments.

The officials, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter, cautioned that U.S. intelligence has not concluded that Moscow is directing Iran’s actions. But they said Russia has shared data that could enhance Iran’s ability to track or strike American forces as the U.S. and Israel continue bombardment inside Iran.

The disclosure, first reported by The Washington Post, marks the clearest sign yet that Moscow may be stepping more directly into the widening conflict.

President Donald Trump dismissed a question about the alleged intelligence sharing during a White House event, calling it “a stupid question.” His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, did not deny the reports but said they were “not making any difference” to U.S. military operations.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a television interview that the United States is “tracking everything” and incorporating any foreign involvement into its operational planning.

At the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russia remains in dialogue with Iran but declined to say whether intelligence or military assistance has been provided since the war began. He added that Tehran has not requested formal military support.

Russia’s relationship with Iran has deepened in recent years, particularly as Moscow sought drones and missiles for its war in Ukraine. U.S. intelligence previously concluded that Iran supplied Russia with Shahed attack drones and assisted in establishing drone manufacturing facilities.

The current conflict now links the two theaters more directly. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Middle Eastern governments are consulting Kyiv for expertise in countering Iranian-made drones — systems that have been used extensively against Ukrainian cities.

The development underscores how the war in Iran is intersecting with broader geopolitical rivalries. While there is no evidence of a formal Russia-Iran military alliance in this conflict, intelligence cooperation alone could complicate U.S. operations and widen the strategic stakes.

For Washington, the question is no longer confined to Tehran’s capabilities — but who may be quietly enhancing them.

Report Says US Central Command Preparing for Prolonged Campaign as Air Defenses and Intelligence Assets Surge to Middle East.

From “weeks” to potentially months — is Washington settling in for a long war?

The United States is preparing for a conflict with Iran that could last at least 100 days — and possibly through September — according to a report by Politico, citing internal planning documents and unnamed officials.

The report says US Central Command (CENTCOM), headquartered in Tampa, Florida, has requested additional military intelligence officers to sustain operations over an extended period. The move suggests that planners are bracing for a longer campaign than the four-week horizon previously outlined by President Donald Trump.

In parallel, the Pentagon is reportedly accelerating shipments of air defense systems to US installations across the Middle East. According to the outlet, officials are prioritizing lower-cost anti-drone weapons to counter Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles — a tacit acknowledgment of the financial strain imposed by firing multimillion-dollar interceptors at relatively inexpensive drones.

If accurate, the preparations point to a strategic recalibration. Sustaining high-intensity air and missile operations for months would require expanded intelligence, logistics and funding commitments — and signal that Washington expects continued Iranian resistance rather than rapid collapse.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance is not directly involved in the US-Israeli campaign but described allies as “massively supportive” and enabling US operations in the region.

The political dynamics inside Europe remain complex. The United Kingdom and Spain initially denied US access to certain military bases for operations against Iran, though London later reversed its position following public criticism from Trump. Spain has since announced it will deploy a naval frigate to Cyprus as part of a multinational effort — including Italy, France and the Netherlands — to protect a British Royal Air Force base from potential Iranian strikes.

The war began last weekend when US and Israeli forces launched coordinated airstrikes inside Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior military commanders. Iran has retaliated with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and Western military facilities across the region.

A months-long war would reshape regional security calculations, strain Western stockpiles and raise the stakes for energy markets already rattled by instability.

For now, the official timeline remains fluid. But the logistics tell a different story: Washington appears to be preparing not for a sprint — but for endurance.

Pentagon Says Tehran’s Launches Are Declining While American Strikes Push Further Inland.

Fewer Iranian missiles — but a wider American war. Is this the turning point or the next phase?

The United States signaled a new phase in its war with Iran on Wednesday, saying Iranian missile launches have declined sharply since the opening salvos of the conflict — even as Washington prepares to expand its campaign deeper into Iranian territory.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that Iran’s military capabilities have been “greatly diminished,” pointing to a drop in missile fire compared with the first days of fighting.

“We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for US forces,” Caine said.

The comments suggest the U.S. believes it has degraded enough of Iran’s air defenses and launch infrastructure to operate with greater latitude — a significant shift from the early phase of the conflict, when Iranian barrages targeted U.S. bases and regional cities.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth struck a confident tone, declaring that the United States was “winning” the war, even as he confirmed that six American service members have been killed since hostilities began.

“We will outlast Iran,” Hegseth said.

In a notable escalation at sea, Hegseth confirmed that a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka — the first sinking of an enemy vessel by torpedo since World War II.

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death.”

The incident marks a dramatic expansion of the conflict beyond the Persian Gulf, underscoring the global dimensions of the confrontation.

Analysts caution that a reduction in Iranian missile fire does not necessarily signal exhaustion. Tehran may be conserving inventory, recalibrating targets, or shifting toward asymmetric tactics — including maritime disruption or proxy operations.

For Washington, however, the message is clear: momentum appears to be shifting. By pushing strikes inland, the United States is betting that sustained pressure will further erode Iran’s command structure, logistics networks and remaining launch capabilities.

Whether that strategy compels Tehran to negotiate — or provokes a new and unpredictable phase — may determine how long this widening war endures.

Assembly of Experts Said to Select Ayatollah Khamenei’s Son Amid Reported Pressure from Revolutionary Guard.

From “gatekeeper” to supreme leader? Iran may be entering its most controversial transition yet.

Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts has reportedly selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the next leader of the Islamic Republic, according to Iran International, which cited sources familiar with the decision. The reported vote was said to have taken place under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Senior Israeli officials said they expect a formal announcement in the coming hours. Iranian state media, however, had not confirmed the decision at the time of reporting.

The development follows the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the outset of Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion. Iranian media reported earlier Tuesday that members of the 88-member Assembly were not inside the Qom building targeted by Israeli strikes and would soon announce a successor.

If confirmed, the elevation of Mojtaba Khamenei would mark one of the most consequential and controversial leadership transitions since the 1979 revolution.

A Contested Succession

Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader’s second son, is widely viewed as aligned with Iran’s hardline conservative establishment. A mid-ranking cleric who teaches Shiite theology in Qom, he has never held formal government office but is believed to have exercised considerable influence behind the scenes, particularly through close ties with the IRGC.

Outside analysts have long described him as a key “gatekeeper” within his father’s inner circle. In 2019, the United States imposed sanctions on him, arguing that he effectively represented the authority of the supreme leader despite lacking an official title.

Yet his candidacy has historically been controversial. Critics have warned that elevating him could be perceived as a hereditary transfer of power — an uncomfortable echo of the monarchy overthrown in 1979. Others have questioned whether he possesses the senior clerical standing traditionally expected for the role.

The Constitutional Framework

Under Iran’s constitution, the supreme leader is selected by the Assembly of Experts, whose members are elected but vetted by the Guardian Council — itself appointed directly or indirectly by the supreme leader. The position wields ultimate authority over the armed forces, judiciary and key state institutions.

If Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection is confirmed, it would signal not only continuity in ideological direction but also the decisive influence of the security establishment at a moment of acute national crisis.

Whether this transition consolidates power — or deepens internal tensions — may soon become clear.