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US President Donald Trump said his “biggest surprise” since unleashing a war in the Middle East has been Iran’s attacks on the Arab Gulf states, which the US counts as some of its closest and richest partners.

“Unbelievable,” a former US intelligence official told Middle East Eye in response to Trump’s comment.

“It’s as if the US was operating and planning in a bubble for the last year. This is what Trump was warned of in conversations with Gulf rulers, and presumably his own intelligence briefings,” the person added.

Not even a year has passed since Trump gave a speech in Riyadh praising the “gleaming marvels” of the oil and gas-rich region’s cities, and now Iranian drones and ballistic missiles are slamming into those very towers and the energy infrastructure that made them possible.

In his May speech, Trump also trashed “interventionists”. His remarks were welcomed not only by ordinary people in the Gulf but also by its wealthy rulers, who are increasingly seeking to manage the region on their own - sometimes through violent means, as in Sudan, and at other times through negotiation.

Now, the US’s willingness to engage in an all-out war on the Islamic Republic as its Gulf allies take the retaliatory blows is shaking the foundations of their security partnership in the first place, analysts and officials in the Gulf say.

“To my knowledge, the US has not spelt out to leadership what our gain is if we join a full-scale war on Iran,” a Gulf official told MEE. “But the cost is obvious.”

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US political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had caught and “arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries”.

“Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in Gulf countries, which are also being attacked by Iran?” Carlson said on his show. “Aren’t they on the same side?”

“Israel wants to hurt Iran - and Qatar, and the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and Oman and Kuwait,” he added.

Carlson also alleged that Israel deliberately sows chaos among America’s Arab allies.

The American journalist did not cite a source for the claim, which Middle East Eye could not independently verify.

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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he’s “not happy” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not joining the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, though he allowed US forces to use UK bases.

“I’m not happy with the UK,” Trump said during a White House meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “It’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land. This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

Trump also singled out Spain, whose left-wing government refused to let US planes use its bases for attacks and resisted NATO defense spending increases.

“Spain has been terrible,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”

The comments came as US and Israeli strikes hit targets across Tehran, marking the fourth day of the conflict.

Drones and missiles targeted Iranian oil facilities and US embassies in the Gulf, while Israel intensified operations in Lebanon against Tehran-backed Hezbollah after the militia entered the fight.

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The search for the dead in the apparent U.S. or Israeli missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh all-girls elementary school in Iran has officially ended.

But the questions surrounding the attack that killed at least 175 people have just begun, as international condemnation and calls for investigations – and accountability – were amplified March 2.

“All alleged violations − including indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, deliberate targeting of civilians or civilian infrastructure, and attacks on medical facilities and schools − must be promptly, independently, and transparently investigated,” one of the world’s oldest human rights organizations, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said in a statement.

“Where evidence of war crimes or other serious violations is found,” it added, “those responsible, regardless of rank or official capacity, must be held accountable in accordance with international law.”

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Explosions were reported in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight between Sunday and Monday.

Novorossiysk hosts Russia’s second-largest oil export facilities and the bulk of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet after Ukrainian drones rendered naval bases in occupied Crimea unsafe for the fleet.

Between Sunday and Monday, Novorossiysk Mayor Andrey Kravchenko reported ongoing Ukrainian drone strikes and damage to buildings, while videos from locals show fire erupting on the horizon and explosions ringing across the city.

Russia’s independent outlet Astra, citing local reports, reported a fire at an oil terminal in Novorossiysk, with flames illuminating an orange glow against the dark skyline.

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Cuba’s communist government is facing a breaking point in its battle for survival under pressure from President Trump, whose energy quarantine against the country is aimed at collapsing the regime.

The consequences are hitting the population of 10 million people hard, with the U.S. fuel blockade exacerbating a decades-long economic crisis, disrupting access to water and worsening food and medicine shortages.

“There’s a number of epidemics rippling through the population right now, repression is increasing as the regime feels cornered, and they are not signaling any willingness to negotiate with the United States,” said Sebastián Arcos, interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

“These people are really, really bad guys, and they have shown this capacity to survive difficult crises,” he added. “I don’t think they can survive this one.”

Trump on Friday suggested the U.S. could achieve a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, perhaps mirroring America’s approach to Venezuela, where the military took out its leaders but kept the regime largely in place while demanding greater economic cooperation.

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