by Our Correspondent in Doha
Just 72 hours after the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on Iran, a regional confrontation has morphed into a sprawling war touching nearly every corner of the Middle East and edging into Europe. What began as a high-intensity bombing campaign has rapidly expanded into a multi-front conflict involving at least 11 countries, threatening global oil and gas supplies, shaking financial markets and raising fresh fears of attacks on American soil.
President Donald Trump has said Operation Epic Fury is designed to last four to five weeks, a timeframe that underscores both the ambition and the uncertainty surrounding the campaign. Within that window, diplomats and defense officials warn, the war has ample room to widen further.
The Middle East had only just emerged from two years of grinding violence stretching across Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire last October brought a fragile calm. That calm has now been shattered by a confrontation that, by early measures, dwarfs the previous cycle in geographic scope and strategic risk.
Tehran had long warned that any strike on its territory would trigger retaliation not only against Israel but also against U.S. forces across the Gulf and in Iraq. Within hours of the first bombs falling, Iran unleashed waves of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel and at Gulf states including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Strikes also targeted Iraq’s Kurdish region, an area Tehran views as closely aligned with Washington and Jerusalem. Pro-Iranian militias attacked U.S. bases in Iraq, and supporters attempted to storm the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad.
By the second day, Iran had widened its target list to include Saudi Arabia and Oman, the latter having served as a key intermediary in nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the Trump administration. Debris from Iranian drones struck a Saudi Aramco refinery, marking the first such attack on the kingdom’s energy infrastructure since 2019. Qatar said it shot down two Iranian fighter jets and condemned what it described as reckless targeting of its territory.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has insisted that Tehran is not at war with the region, claiming its actions are limited to Israel and U.S. military installations. Yet Iranian projectiles have hit civilian areas across the Gulf, including tourist districts in Dubai, widening the gap between official statements and battlefield realities. Arab officials say that discrepancy is pushing some regional governments closer to direct retaliation.
Beyond missile exchanges, Iran has moved to choke commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes. Tehran has vowed to set fire to vessels attempting transit. The U.S. Navy has responded by sinking several Iranian naval vessels, while Washington maintains that oil supplies remain stable. Even so, energy markets have surged amid curtailed exports and Qatar’s suspension of liquefied natural gas production.
On Israel’s northern frontier, Hezbollah entered the war, launching missiles and drones and opening a second front from Lebanon. Israel responded with sweeping airstrikes across Lebanese territory, including Beirut, killing several senior Hezbollah commanders. Though years of Israeli operations have degraded the group’s capabilities, Hezbollah remains Iran’s most formidable proxy. So far its attacks have been limited and largely intercepted, prompting questions in Israel about the group’s strategy. An Israeli defense official warned that every Hezbollah operative is now a target.
In a dramatic development, Lebanon’s cabinet voted to ban all Hezbollah military activity on its soil, with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam calling for the group to surrender its weapons. The move signals deep internal strains as Lebanon risks being drawn further into a devastating regional war.
Europe has not remained insulated. Drones struck the British Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, marking the conflict’s first direct spillover onto European territory. Cypriot reports indicated the drones were launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah. Greece announced it was dispatching frigates and fighter jets to bolster Cyprus’s defenses, and a planned European Union ministerial summit was postponed.
The United Kingdom, France and Germany have signaled they could take a more active role. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London would allow U.S. forces to use British bases to launch strikes on Iranian missile and drone infrastructure. The possibility of expanded European involvement underscores how quickly a regional clash could transform into a broader international confrontation.
Inside Washington, the reverberations are already being felt. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have placed counterterrorism teams on high alert, warning of a heightened threat environment that includes potential terror plots and cyberattacks by pro-Iranian actors. The U.S. Capitol has tightened security, and a mass shooting in Austin is under investigation for possible links to the conflict.
Even as missiles fly, political maneuvering continues behind the scenes. President Trump has held phone calls with Kurdish leaders in Iraq, including Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani, as Washington explores how Kurdish forces might factor into the evolving battlefield. Kurdish fighters, known as peshmerga, control strategic terrain along the Iran-Iraq border and have decades of combat experience. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long argued that Kurdish groups could play a decisive role in destabilizing Tehran’s regime.
Netanyahu, who has been relentless in pressing for strikes and openly speaks of regime change, insists the war will not be endless. He argues that Iran is at its weakest point since the 1979 revolution and claims the joint campaign will be swift and decisive. U.S. officials, however, have sent mixed signals about whether regime change is an objective or whether the focus remains on neutralizing missile, naval and nuclear threats.
Fueling the urgency are stark claims about Iran’s nuclear capabilities. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has said Iranian negotiators previously boasted of possessing 460 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, enough, he argued, to produce 11 nuclear bombs if further enriched. Witkoff maintains that U.S. strikes destroyed the facilities needed to weaponize that material, though he warns the stockpile could be converted to weapons-grade within days if infrastructure were restored.
For Netanyahu, the timing of the attack was critical. He contends that Iran had begun constructing new underground facilities that would soon render its missile and nuclear programs immune to airstrikes. If action had been delayed, he says, future intervention might have been impossible.
As the war barrels into its first full week, the stakes are mounting by the hour. Oil tankers sit idle, airlines reroute flights, European governments debate military options and American security agencies brace for potential retaliation. What began as a calculated gamble to curb Iran’s capabilities has already reshaped the strategic landscape of the Middle East — and may yet redefine the global order that surrounds it.
