Riyadh (Somalia Today) – US Senator Lindsey Graham visited Saudi Arabia in late February to secure Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s backing for a planned attack on Iran, a Middle East Eye report said Sunday, as a rapidly widening regional war pushes Gulf states closer to Washington.
The revelation puts the conflict timeline under intense scrutiny, suggesting the Trump administration had already committed to military action while indirect nuclear diplomacy with Tehran was still underway.
The United States and Israel launched massive coordinated strikes on Iran on Saturday, plunging the Middle East into a direct regional war.
While officials publicly framed Graham’s February visit to Riyadh as a routine discussion on bilateral ties, a US official told Middle East Eye that the Republican senator was sent specifically to bring the Saudi leader “on board” with the offensive.
The Saudi crown prince did not vehemently oppose the plan, the official told the news outlet.
The conflict has since exploded into a multi-front war, with Iran unleashing hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states hosting American forces.
The unprecedented exchange of fire has inflicted severe casualties across the region.
In Iran, the toll from the US-Israeli bombardment has been devastating. Tehran announced that the strikes killed at least 200 people, including several high-ranking officials.
Crucially, Iran said the offensive killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian retaliation has also proven deadly. Iranian strikes have killed at least three US service members and seriously wounded five others, marking the first known American casualties in the current fighting.
Meanwhile, an Iranian missile that penetrated Israel’s air defences killed at least nine people on Sunday in Beit Shemesh, a city west of Jerusalem.
Gulf states targeted
The sheer scale of the Iranian retaliation has forced Gulf states to confront a severe security crisis.
Using American air-defence systems, Gulf nations have shot down the vast majority of incoming projectiles.
However, Iran has successfully slipped some “Shahed” drones through the defensive net. The drones have struck luxury hotels in Dubai and US military installations across the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Iran has also targeted Saudi Arabia in the barrage.
The Iranian bombardment appears to have hardened attitudes in the Gulf, severely testing a fragile 2023 diplomatic thaw between Riyadh and Tehran.
Saudi Arabia had previously been at the forefront of Arab nations urging Washington to pursue a diplomatic resolution, reportedly lobbying against a surprise attack.
But US and Arab officials told Middle East Eye that Saudi Arabia is now inching closer to supporting military action against Iran.
On Saturday, the Saudi Press Agency reported that Riyadh strongly condemned the “brutal Iranian attacks” against fellow Gulf states, warning that the strikes undermined regional security.
US President Donald Trump held a phone call with the Saudi crown prince on Saturday in the wake of the attacks, though officials have kept specific details of the conversation quiet.
Air defence dilemma
Washington and Israel are reportedly running low on vital interceptors, including THAAD, Patriot, Arrow, and David’s Sling missiles.
The US administration previously lobbied Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman in January on the strategic importance of supporting American military action.
Washington argued that strikes could cripple Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and reduce its threat to regional partners.
Saudi Arabia activated its first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery last year, with three additional systems scheduled for completion in 2026.
During a previous US-Israeli strike on Iran in June, Washington asked Riyadh to contribute THAAD interceptors to Israel’s defence. The kingdom refused the request at the time.
However, with Iran now directly targeting Saudi territory, the kingdom may already be deploying those interceptors for its own survival.
By joining an offensive operation, Gulf states risk inviting devastating Iranian reprisals against their energy infrastructure, which has so far been spared.
Yet the escalating Iranian strikes have left Arab capitals feeling an urgent need to assert their own red lines against the Islamic Republic.
“Iran is forcing the GCC up the escalation ladder,” Firas Maksad, managing director for the Middle East at the Eurasia Group, wrote on X.
“They will have to consider responding or, at a minimum, allowing the US greater operational freedom to conduct offensive operations from their territories.”
