The war between Iran, the US and Israel has quickly spilled into other Gulf nations which have vowed to retaliate over Iranian attacks, raising the chance of a wider and protracted Middle East conflict.
Following Saturday’s U.S. and Israeli attacks on Tehran and across the country, Iran has responded by launching waves of missile and drone strikes on several of its neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Although most of those attacks have been intercepted by air defences, a minimum of five deaths had been reported as of Monday, including three people within the UAE and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.
Kuwait later confirmed two navy soldiers were killed on Monday while “carrying out duties” with its armed forces.
As well as, the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah targeted Israel, which responded with strikes on Lebanon, killing greater than two dozen people.
The chaos of what’s unfolding became clear Monday when the U.S. military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American fighter jets while Iran was attacking the country with aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones.
U.S. Central Command said all six U.S. pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.
“It’s a large mess,” said Rex Brynen, a political science professor at McGill University specializing in Middle East politics.
He and other experts Global News spoke with said Iran is looking for to extend the associated fee of a war with the U.S. and Israel by “suck(ing) your complete remainder of the Gulf in.”
“They probably didn’t feel they might do enough damage to the U.S. per se, but perhaps by damaging U.S. allies, they might achieve this,” Brynen said.
Asher Kaufman, a history and peace studies professor on the University of Notre Dame, said Iran’s retaliation isn’t much of a surprise and that the U.S. and Israel likely would have prepared for it.
“(Iran’s) interest now’s to entangle this war right into a regional conflict,” he said.
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“From an American and Israeli perspective, things are unfolding not very in another way than what they could have been planning for all along.”
Global Affairs Canada said as of Monday, there are least 85,000 Canadians within the Middle East, greater than 50,000 of whom are within the UAE, Lebanon or Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. and European nations have military bases spread across the Middle East, including within the countries Iran has been attacking.
Although Iranian drones and missiles have struck those bases, they’ve also hit at or near airports in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE.
A map depicting Iran’s retaliation against U.S. and Israeli strikes.
AFP/Getty Images
Other civilian infrastructure has been hit by shrapnel and debris from Iranian projectiles intercepted by the air defences of Gulf nations, leading to damage and dozens of injuries.
An Abu Dhabi complex housing the Israeli embassy and a number of other other international missions was hit by debris Sunday, local officials said, while a minimum of two homes were damaged by fallen drones in Dubai.
The UAE’s defence ministry said early Tuesday it was coping with a brand new “barrage of ballistic missiles coming from Iran” and was taking steps to confront the threat.
In a press release Monday, the ministry said it had intercepted a lot of the 174 ballistic missiles and 689 drones Iran had launched on the country to this point. The remaining either fell into the ocean or “inside the country’s territory,” leading to “collateral damage.”
“The country reserves its full right to reply to this escalation,” which the UAE considers “a blatant act of aggression and a flagrant violation of national sovereignty and international law,” the statement read.
This mix of satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC show Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, left, and on Sunday, March 1, 2026, right. (Planet Labs PBC via AP).
The UAE earlier joined Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar, together with the U.S., in condemning Iran’s “unjustified strikes” on neighbouring countries.
“The Islamic Republic’s actions represent a dangerous escalation that violates the sovereignty of multiple states and threatens regional stability,” the joint statement Monday said.
“The targeting of civilians and of nations not engaged in hostilities is reckless and destabilizing behavior. We stand united in defense of our residents, sovereignty, and territory, and reaffirm our right to self-defense within the face of those attacks.”
Qatar’s defence ministry, meanwhile, said Monday its air force had shot down two Iranian bombers and multiple missiles and drones.
In a letter on Monday, the country told the U.N. Secretary General and the president of the Security Council that it reserves complete right to reply to Iranian attacks on its territory, Reuters reported.
Also on Monday, Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery got here under attack from drones, with defences downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
That attack, together with threats to shipping within the Strait of Hormuz, is already driving up oil prices and will increase the economic cost of the war, experts told Global News.
Brynen said that, following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials, the country’s armed forces have turn out to be “decentralized” with none political instruction on easy methods to retaliate.
“A few of these (attacks on Gulf states) could also be local initiatives by military commanders that aren’t necessarily plugged right into a grand strategy,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to acknowledge this in an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday, by which he said a drone attack on Oman’s Duqm Port was “not our selection.”
“We’ve got already told our armed forces to watch out concerning the targets they select,” he said, noting that “independent and somewhat isolated” units were acting on “general instructions given to them prematurely.”
Kaufman said whether the war strains relations between Arab allies and the U.S. or Israel largely rests on the consequence.
“All of it will depend on the survival of this regime, because at the tip of the day, most Gulf states haven’t any sympathy for the regime in Iran,” he said.
“If this regime falls, then most Gulf states — actually Saudi Arabia — could be very blissful. But when this regime survives this war, then I believe then we’d have the ability to ask the query of the effect of their relationship with Israel (and the U.S.).
—With files from the Associated Press