Iran’s Attack on a U.S. Base in Qatar is a Nightmare Come True for Gulf States

Middle East|Iran’s Attack on a U.S. Base in Qatar is a Nightmare Come True for Gulf States

Doha, the quiet capital of Qatar, is usually known for public safety and manicured malls. So the panicked scenes there on Monday after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at an American military base near the city were unlike anything its residents had seen.

Smoking and blackened shrapnel fell from the sky. Interceptors that collided with the missiles and exploded midair were visible from The Pearl Island, a man-made land mass filled with high-end apartments. Shoppers heard loud booms, and screamed and sprinted for cover in the Villaggio Mall, where gondoliers ply an indoor canal.

Lynus Yim, a 22-year-old tourist from Hong Kong who was visiting the mall, said he thought there had been a terrorist attack until he ran outside and saw the missiles. “I thought that I might not make it through yesterday, because I’ve never been in a situation like that,” he said by phone a day after the attacks.

The operation was telegraphed by Iran and no one was killed. Still, the attack that Iran launched in response to the American bombing of its nuclear sites on Sunday was a nightmare for the Gulf states, which include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

Despite years of efforts to build bridges with Iran, curry favor with President Trump and establish their capitals as business-friendly havens in a volatile Middle East, they have found themselves sucked into a conflict that they have sought to avoid.

“It leaves the Gulf in a really uncomfortable spot,” said Dina Esfandiary, Middle East geoeconomics lead at Bloomberg Economics. “Their absolute worst fear came true: They were caught in the middle of an escalation between Iran and the U.S.”