{"id":48940,"date":"2026-03-15T08:51:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T08:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=48940"},"modified":"2026-03-15T08:51:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T08:51:38","slug":"israel-says-it-has-launched-extensive-strikes-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2026\/03\/15\/israel-says-it-has-launched-extensive-strikes-on-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel says it has launched \u2018extensive strikes\u2019 on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Donald Trump has said he is \u201csurprised\u201d that US allies in the Gulf have been targeted by Iran, in an\u00a0interview with NBC News.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The president called these countries \u201cterrific\u201d, adding that \u201cthey got shot at unnecessarily.\u201d When talking about Iran\u2019s decision to target them, Trump said it was \u201cthe biggest surprise I had of this whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"d807d55a-907f-42c8-8918-b62bdbe956a4\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2f3ac080e203c1c2f856b9a6acaf298ca2b30ac2\/0_0_8448_5632\/master\/8448.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"A damaged building in the aftermath of a drone strike in the Seef district of Manama, Bahrain on 10 March.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A damaged building in the aftermath of a drone strike in the Seef district of Manama, Bahrain on 10 March.&nbsp;Photograph: AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For decades, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Oman have allowed US military bases, infrastructure or access on their soil, and have been among the largest buyers of American weapons and technology. In return, the US has stood as the Gulf\u2019s closest and most significant military partner and protector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now many of these countries&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/14\/gulf-strait-of-hormuz-nightmare-anger-frustration-at-us\">have growing concerns<\/a>&nbsp;over the relationship, analysts say, as they are pulled deeper into a war that they did not start and had diplomatically tried to prevent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the Gulf expected to be caught in the backlash, the scale of Iran\u2019s campaign of revenge has left many shocked. Gulf states had assured Tehran that none of their bases would be used for attacks but that has not stopped Iran launching thousands of drones and missiles targeting airports, military bases, oil refineries, ports, hotels and office buildings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump has said he is \u201csurprised\u201d that US allies in the Gulf have been targeted by Iran, in an\u00a0interview with NBC News. The president called these countries \u201cterrific\u201d, adding that \u201cthey got shot at unnecessarily.\u201d When talking about Iran\u2019s decision to target them, Trump said it was \u201cthe biggest surprise I had of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":48941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4836,11394,10387,9506,10413,7445,5579,5403,8995,11493,1759,3095,6926,5572,12985,12991,5441,12993,3805,8552,8160,1364,11259,5818,6675,7444,347,6348,12992,9516,12994,5251,5724],"class_list":["post-48940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-access","tag-attacks","tag-campaign","tag-drone","tag-drone-strike","tag-drones","tag-gulf","tag-hotels","tag-infrastructure","tag-interview","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-kuwait","tag-military","tag-missiles","tag-nbc-news","tag-oil","tag-oman","tag-president","tag-qatar","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shot","tag-strike","tag-technology","tag-tehran","tag-uae","tag-us","tag-us-allies","tag-us-military","tag-us-military-bases","tag-war","tag-weapons"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48942,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48940\/revisions\/48942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}