Gulf Leaders Race to Head Off Fresh U.S. Strikes on Iran After Tuesday's Midterms

MANAMA, Bahrain — Gulf Arab leaders spent the weekend trying to prevent a new round of American and Israeli strikes on Iran that officials say are being planned for after Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, with Qatar at the center of an intense mediation push.

NPR's Aya Batrawy, reporting from Bahrain, said Qatar has led efforts over the past 72 hours, with mediators visiting Tehran and an Iranian delegation traveling to Doha. Qatar has been tight-lipped. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was quoted by Iranian state media on Sunday saying there is still no definitive conclusion, but that a two-day plan is under discussion. It would have Iran refrain from attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz so that direct talks between Washington and Tehran could begin again.

President Trump, asked at a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago about restarting the war, said the United States is "not in that much of a hurry." He said U.S. forces have knocked out almost every piece of military equipment Iran had, much of its manufacturing capability and its nuclear program. "We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes," he said. Batrawy reported that diplomats and military officers across the region, from senior Europeans to Arab generals, have no idea what he will do.

The war began eight months ago, on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing its supreme leader and top military commanders and destroying many of its ships and missile production sites. It has not toppled the government, which was Israel's stated goal. Iran's Revolutionary Guard remains capable of hurting its Gulf neighbors, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed Brent crude about 60 percent above its prewar level.

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, told senior commanders this weekend that any threat must be met with an immediate response "without geographical limitations." Iranian state media said that means any new Israeli or U.S. attack would inflict greater damage than before.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, knows what that looks like. Iran struck the fleet's logistics hub and warehouses on the first day of the war. Batrawy said she could see damaged radar equipment and charred warehouses from the highway. The base once held about 8,000 military personnel and now has fewer than 100. At the Manama Dialogue security forum, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani described the many missiles and drones Iran fired at his country, including at civilian infrastructure. He added that the Revolutionary Guard has threatened this month to hit undersea internet cables running through the Strait of Hormuz if war resumes. Iran also struck Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the peak of the fighting.

Even the UAE, the most hawkish Gulf state on Iran, wants no more war. Senior Emirati diplomat Anwar Gargash told the summit that military solutions "will only complicate the current, very complicated scene" and offer no quick off-ramp. Saudi Arabia is still working to protect its airports and oil facilities from attacks by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. Batrawy said the shared message from the region is that more attacks on Iran would be devastating for economies already suffering from the war.