Saudi Arabia’s air defences intercepted at least eight Iranian drones over the country’s oil-rich eastern region on Wednesday, adding the kingdom to the list of Gulf states bearing the brunt of Iran’s regional counteroffensive as the war with the United States and Israel intensified. The intercepts came on a day when Iran rejected a US ceasefire proposal and submitted its own conditions for ending hostilities, while Kuwait suffered a major fire at its international airport from a separate Iranian strike and arrested six people linked to an alleged Hezbollah assassination plot targeting its leadership. The Gulf region was on high alert.
The diplomatic picture was no less volatile. The 15-point US ceasefire framework delivered through Pakistan asked for nuclear disarmament, missile constraints, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and offered sanctions relief. Iran rejected this comprehensively, with state television broadcasting an unnamed official’s declaration that the country would end the war only on its own terms. Tehran submitted a five-point counter-proposal demanding cessation of attacks including targeted killings, security guarantees, reparations, and Iranian control over the strait.
Israel continued its assault on Iran with what it described as a wide-scale wave of strikes hitting infrastructure across multiple Iranian cities including Isfahan, where a submarine development centre was targeted. Iran responded with ballistic missiles directed at Israel and drones aimed at Gulf nations, with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait both absorbing strikes. US forces had hit over 10,000 targets in Iran, destroying 92% of its largest naval ships and severely damaging most of its missile and drone production infrastructure, according to US military commanders.
Despite this damage, Iran remained militarily active and strategically threatening. Officials warned that any US ground operation — particularly an attempt to seize Kharg Island — would be met with carpet-bombing and potentially devastating casualties for invading forces. The parliament speaker threatened retaliatory attacks on any regional country that facilitated such an operation. An Iranian military official threatened to open new fronts in the Red Sea and Sea of Oman, raising fears of a further widening of the conflict that was already straining global energy markets.
For the international community, the Gulf’s escalating vulnerability was deeply worrying. Energy markets were already disrupted by the Hormuz blockade, and the prospect of additional attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure added further pressure. China’s foreign minister urged restraint and dialogue, and Egyptian and Pakistani officials said direct US-Iran talks might be possible by Friday. President Trump’s approval rating was at 36%, a record low, and 59% of Americans said the war had gone too far — political realities that added weight to the search for an exit from a conflict that showed no signs of burning out on its own.
