Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Thursday to pledge Riyadh’s “full solidarity” after Iranian drones and missiles struck Bahraini territory, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. The call came the same day a drone attack on Kuwait International Airport killed one person and wounded at least 63 others; the airport had reopened just two days earlier after months of war-related closure.
The SPA said the crown prince expressed Saudi Arabia’s “condemnation and denunciation of the attacks that targeted Bahraini territory” and pledged support for “any measures” Bahrain takes to protect its security. The statement follows 97 days of accumulated strikes that have left Bahrain among the most persistently targeted territories in the Gulf and turned Saudi Arabia’s own energy infrastructure into a confirmed Iranian target.
The June 3 Exchange
US Central Command (CENTCOM) described its strike on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island as a “self-defense” action. Qeshm sits at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, and the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) has used its control stations there to direct drone swarms against commercial shipping since the war’s opening weeks. The Strait carries roughly 27 percent of the world’s maritime crude oil and petroleum trade, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis of Hormuz crisis impacts on global commodity markets. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said a telecommunications tower was struck and called it a ceasefire violation.
Iran’s counter moved on several vectors. The IRGC claimed strikes on US bases in both Kuwait and Bahrain and reported a separate attack on a vessel near the Strait. Before the Qeshm strike, US forces had disabled a Botswana-flagged oil tanker heading toward Iran’s Kharg Island using a Hellfire missile; Iran’s foreign minister cited that as the trigger for Wednesday’s retaliation.
CENTCOM reported three ballistic missiles aimed at Bahrain were intercepted by US and Bahraini air defenses. Two others fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart. The drone that hit Kuwait’s passenger terminal made it through. Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi of Kuwait’s Defense Ministry confirmed “a number of hostile drones” targeted the building directly. India’s embassy said the fatality was an Indian national; authorities counted 63 wounded, several seriously.
The IRGC denied responsibility, claiming through state broadcaster IRIB that the terminal damage came from a failed US-made Patriot interceptor. CENTCOM rejected that account as false and described the airport attack as “deliberate, calculated and unjustified.”
Bahrain’s Mounting Toll
From the Fifth Fleet to BAPCO
Of all six GCC members, Bahrain carries the smallest geographic buffer against Iranian fire. The island kingdom sits directly across from Iran’s coastline and is connected to Saudi Arabia by a single 25-kilometer causeway. It hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama and Sheikh Isa Air Base; both have been recurring targets since February 28.
The Fifth Fleet HQ was struck on the opening day of the conflict. Congressional sources cited by The New York Times put repair costs for the headquarters building alone at up to $200 million following a Pentagon assessment. Satellite imagery confirmed Iranian strikes had hit several P-8 surveillance aircraft hangars at Sheikh Isa. BAPCO Energies, Bahrain’s state oil company, declared force majeure after an Iranian drone attack on a fuel depot in Muharraq Governorate started a large fire near its refinery complex. Gulf Air relocated its entire fleet to Saudi airports as a precaution.
Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with Iran in 2016 and never restored them. This conflict arrived on an already-frozen bilateral relationship with no direct back-channel between the two governments.
The Intercept Count
Official Bahraini government figures released since the conflict’s opening show what the kingdom’s air defenses have absorbed:
- 174 missiles intercepted by Bahraini and US air defense systems since February 28
- 391 drones brought down over the same period
- At least two people killed and more than 50 injured in Bahrain by early March, before subsequent exchanges added to both tallies
An explosion near Manama sparked a fire beside an oil refinery and injured 32 Bahraini citizens. A missile at Mina Salman Port killed a Bangladeshi shipyard worker. In a later exchange, the IRGC claimed it struck Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure in Bahrain, saying it targeted a cloud computing facility used by US military operations in the region.
Why the Ceasefire Means Something Different Now
Pakistan brokered a ceasefire between the US and Iran that took effect April 8. Within hours, Iran struck Saudi oil infrastructure and continued targeting Gulf states even as the truce nominally held. US President Donald Trump was asked on June 3 whether the ceasefire remained in place:
I’d say in that part of the world a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said negotiations to extend the truce had gone “very well” despite the day’s combat. Iran’s foreign minister had suspended talks that week over Israeli strikes near Beirut; Trump said on June 1 a fresh round of calls had put negotiations back on track.
Iran has conditioned a durable agreement on the Strait of Hormuz reopening in exchange for sanctions relief. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate appropriations subcommittee on June 2 that no sanctions on Iran would be lifted for Hormuz access. The latest reported draft deal would extend the ceasefire by 60 days, call for reopening the strait, and set a framework for renewed nuclear negotiations, though Trump has requested revisions covering Hormuz terms and the disposal of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile.
Kuwait International Airport had been shuttered since the war’s early phase in March, reopening June 1 after months of halted operations. Two days later, Iranian drones struck again.
Riyadh’s Stake in Bahrain’s Stability
When Riyadh Blocked US Operations
Saudi Arabia has played a more active military role in this conflict than its solidarity statements reflect. The kingdom allowed US forces to operate from Prince Sultan Air Base and permitted transit of Saudi airspace for operations against Iran. Reuters, citing Iraqi and Western officials, reported in May that Saudi Arabia had also struck Iranian-backed Iraqi militias near the Saudi-Iraqi border around the time of the April ceasefire.
That cooperation was conditional. When Trump announced “Project Freedom,” a naval operation to force open the Strait of Hormuz, NBC News reported the announcement had not been cleared with Riyadh and angered Saudi leaders who were backing the Pakistan-led diplomatic track. Saudi Arabia responded by denying the US military access to Prince Sultan Air Base and its airspace, which forced a pause in the operation. The White House cited “great progress” toward a deal as its stated reason for halting.
The episode shows Saudi Arabia’s position: it supports the US military alliance but wants a negotiated outcome on Hormuz, one that avoids renewed escalation that would invite more Iranian strikes on Saudi territory.
The April 8 Warning
The day the ceasefire took effect brought Tehran’s clearest signal to Gulf capitals about the cost of hosting US forces. Iran’s strikes on April 8 targeted Petroline, the east-west crude pipeline connecting Saudi oil fields to the Red Sea terminal at Yanbu, along with production facilities at Manifa and Khurais. According to ACLED’s analysis of how Gulf states navigated the ceasefire, those strikes cut Saudi oil output by 600,000 barrels per day, the largest coordinated attack on Saudi energy infrastructure since the conflict began.
Iran framed the strikes as a response to continued Israeli operations in Lebanon and as pressure to expand the ceasefire’s scope to the entire region. Saudi Arabia called for talks that “address all issues” contributing to regional instability over “the past decades,” a deliberately open-ended formulation. It has not publicly responded to Trump’s May condition that any peace deal require Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan to normalize relations with Israel through an Abraham Accords expansion.
Where GCC Unity Ends
The Six States Compared
All six GCC members emerged from the conflict’s opening weeks with a common statement: preserve the ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, pursue a lasting settlement. The shared position has held for public consumption. National calculations behind it have diverged, with some members pressing for a maximalist outcome against Iran and others prioritizing a diplomatic off-ramp.
A House of Commons Library research briefing on Gulf states’ positioning in the Iran war identifies the UAE as the hardest-line member, calling for the “unconditional reopening” of the Hormuz Strait, Iranian reparations, and a settlement curtailing Iran’s support for armed groups. Bahrain, which never restored diplomatic ties with Tehran, has aligned closely with the US throughout. Qatar and Oman, both of which maintained open channels with Iran and absorbed fewer strikes, have prioritized dialogue.
| GCC State | Exposure to Iranian Strikes | Relations with Iran | Stated Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UAE | Highest | Expelled diplomats | Hardline; reparations, curtail proxies |
| Bahrain | High | Severed 2016, not restored | Aligned with US; sustained air-defense posture |
| Saudi Arabia | High | 2023 rapprochement, now strained | Diplomacy-first; Hormuz reopening as minimum |
| Kuwait | Moderate | Tense | Cease hostilities; support talks |
| Qatar | Low-moderate | Open | Coexistence; mediation |
| Oman | Lowest | Open; Iran mediator | Middle road; back-channel diplomacy |
Saudi Arabia’s Diplomatic Calculation
An April analysis of competing GCC futures by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes that some reporting portrays “a Saudi-led axis that favors diplomacy with Iran, versus an Emirati team that wants the United States and Israel to finish off the Islamic Republic.” That split has persisted through every round of ceasefire negotiations.
Saudi Arabia’s bilateral solidarity calls sit inside that same framework. Thursday’s call to Bahrain’s king, and a similar pledge Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi made to Qatar’s Emir in March as covered in Egypt’s reaffirmation of support for Qatar amid rising regional tensions, follow the same logic: reaffirm the alliance and signal that any member’s security breakdown is a shared concern for the region.
Peace negotiations are now in their third month without a signed agreement. Rubio told the Senate on June 2 that no sanctions on Iran will be lifted in exchange for Hormuz access, the condition Iran has insisted on as a prerequisite for any deal.
