Gulf states must rethink trillion-dollar defence in light of U.S.-Iran war, IISS reports says
Gulf states are going to have to reconfigure their trillion-dollar defences given the damage inflicted on their economies and the questionable continued value of US bases in the face of Iranian attack, according to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The report says that in the weeks before the 8 April ceasefire, 12 regional states, overwhelmingly in the Gulf, faced 4,670 Iranian one-way attack drones and more than 1,400 ballistic missiles. Nearly half were aimed at the United Arab Emirates. Although the vast majority were repelled, one estimate of the damage to energy infrastructure cited by the report is put as high as $58bn (£43bn).
Iran would portray either a reduction or complete withdrawal of US forces from the region as “a strategic success and vindication of its steadfastness, but also use it to embarrass the Gulf states about their decades-long courtship of US protection”.
The report says the war also highlights another “uncomfortable truth for the Gulf states: not only has their trillion-dollar acquisition of US weapons not translated into US protection at the crucial time, but their respective militaries are also not adequately prepared for the new kind of attritional air war to which they are being exposed”. [Continue reading…]