According to a US media report, the US and its allies in the Gulf region have recently raised the alert level for their armed forces. The background is said to be Iran’s plans to attack neighboring countries in order to distract attention from the protests in their own country. The US does not confirm this, but is “concerned”.
The US government is concerned about the current security situation in the Gulf region. US Department of Defense spokesman Pat Ryder said: He was responding to a request for a Wall Street Journal report that Iran was planning attacks on Saudi Arabia and northern Iraq to distract from protests in its own country. According to the report, which cites Saudi intelligence, Saudi Arabia, the US and several other neighboring countries have raised the alert level for their forces in the region.
“What I can say is that we remain concerned about the threat landscape in the region,” Ryder said. “We are in regular contact with our Saudi partners to find out what information they can provide on this topic.” The US reserves the right to protect and defend itself when a specific threat arises – no matter where the armed forces are deployed, whether in Iraq or elsewhere. The spokesman did not go into detail about the Wall Street Journal report.
For weeks, thousands have been demonstrating across Iran against the government’s repressive course and the Islamic system of rule. The system-critical mass protests were triggered by the death of the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The vice squad arrested her for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes. The woman died in police custody on September 16.
Iran accused Saudi Arabia and the US of instigating the protests. Iran has been attacking bases of Kurdish separatist groups in neighboring northern Iraq with rockets and armed drones since the end of September. He justifies the attacks as a “legitimate reaction” to attacks by Kurdish terrorist groups on Iranian military bases in the border area. Iran previously accused some Kurdish groups of being involved in the anti-government protests in Iran, including by supplying arms to demonstrators.
