Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a direct warning to Gulf states on Saturday, March 28, 2026, pressing neighbouring nations not to allow their territory to be used for military operations against Iran. Pezeshkian posted the statement on the social media platform X, restating Tehran’s position that Iran does not conduct preemptive attacks but will retaliate forcefully if its infrastructure or economic centres are targeted. The warning came as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps continued aerial strikes against Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates on the twenty-ninth day of the conflict that began on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
Kuwait International Airport targeted again as drone strikes damage radar on March 28 and 29
Kuwait International Airport was struck by multiple drone attacks in the early hours of Saturday, March 28, 2026, causing significant damage to the airport’s radar system. Kuwait’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the attacks through the state news agency KUNA, reporting no casualties. Kuwait’s Kuwaiti National Guard shot down four additional drones on Sunday, March 29, after air raid sirens sounded across the country for a second consecutive morning. Kuwait’s air defence systems remained in active engagement against incoming drone and missile threats throughout both days. The airport has been targeted multiple times since February 28, with an earlier drone strike destroying a fuel tank and injuring four employees, and a subsequent attack damaging the passenger terminal building.
The strikes on Kuwait International Airport are part of a broader Iranian campaign that has caused significant casualties and infrastructure damage across the country since the conflict began. Iranian attacks killed four Kuwaiti soldiers and four civilians, wounded 67 military personnel according to Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense, and killed six United States soldiers stationed at Camp Buehring in northeastern Kuwait. The United States Embassy in Kuwait was struck by an Iranian missile, prompting its closure. The Camp Canada military base within Ali Al Salem Air Base was also struck, with Canadian forces sustaining no casualties after sheltering in bunkers. Kuwait’s Emir Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah described the attacks as unprovoked aggression from a country Kuwait had not permitted to use its territory against Iran.
Dubai and United Arab Emirates sustain continued Iranian strikes including attack on Emirates Global Aluminium
Iranian drone and missile strikes continued against Dubai and the broader United Arab Emirates through March 28 and 29, 2026. Iran claimed attacks on aluminium production facilities in both Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Emirates Global Aluminium confirmed that an Iranian attack wounded several employees and caused significant damage to its plant. The company is responsible for approximately four percent of the world’s total aluminium production and nearly half of the aluminium produced across the Gulf region. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that its strikes were carried out using domestically produced munitions including Qadr 380 cruise missiles, which the Guards described as having a range of 1,000 kilometres.
The United Arab Emirates has sustained the heaviest Iranian strike load of any Gulf Cooperation Council member state since February 28. The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence has intercepted and destroyed 398 ballistic missiles, 1,872 drones, and 15 cruise missiles through March 28. Previous strikes hit Dubai International Airport on multiple occasions, the port of Jebel Ali, Palm Jumeirah, the Burj Al Arab hotel, the Dubai International Financial Centre, Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, and the United States consulate in Dubai on March 3. A fire at Dubai International Airport on March 16 was caused by a drone strike resulting in an oil tanker explosion. As of March 28, eleven people had been killed in the United Arab Emirates, including two Emirati military personnel and one civilian contractor, with 178 people injured from 29 nationalities. United Arab Emirates oil production dropped by between 500,000 and 800,000 barrels per day. The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially classified Iranian attacks as terrorist attacks on March 19, and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan stated the United Arab Emirates would not be blackmailed by terrorists.
Pezeshkian’s warning contradicted by IRGC as Iran’s internal command division continues to send mixed signals
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s March 28 warning to Gulf states was immediately contradicted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which issued its own statement reaffirming that all United States military bases and assets across the region, on land, at sea, and in the air, would remain primary targets should hostile operations continue. Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Larijani, reinforced the military position, stating that Iran would respond when attacked from bases in the region. The divergence between the presidential warning and the military establishment’s public declarations continued the pattern established earlier in the conflict, when Pezeshkian apologised to Gulf neighbours on March 7 only for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to override him within hours.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf accused the United States on Sunday, March 29, of planning a ground invasion as the next phase of the war, warning that any such intervention would be met with force. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that Tehran would continue its resistance and did not intend to negotiate directly, while reporting that Iran had responded through intermediaries to a 15-point United States plan to end the conflict and was awaiting Washington’s reply. United States President Donald Trump, meanwhile, claimed Iran had surrendered to its Gulf neighbours in response to the presidential statement, a characterisation Pezeshkian’s office rejected.
IRGC issues March 30 deadline threatening US university campuses in Qatar and UAE
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps escalated its threats against Gulf civilian infrastructure on Sunday, March 29, issuing an ultimatum that United States university campuses in the Gulf states would be targeted unless the United States government condemned the destruction of two Iranian universities in an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that if the United States also wanted to prevent further strikes on universities in the region, it must restrain allied forces from attacking Iranian universities and research centres. United States universities with campuses in the Gulf region include Texas A&M University and Northwestern University in Qatar, and New York University in the United Arab Emirates.
The ultimatum introduced academic institutions housing thousands of international students, faculty, and staff into the conflict’s target envelope for the first time. United States and Gulf state authorities did not immediately respond publicly to the threat before the March 30 deadline. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had separately demanded that the United States government condemn the strikes on Iranian universities through an official statement, threatening to expand attacks to more than two institutions if conditions were not met.
Yemen’s Houthi movement enters conflict on March 28 as war spreads into its fifth week
Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement entered the conflict on Saturday, March 28, 2026, firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel in its first such strikes since Operation Epic Fury began. The Houthi entry expanded the conflict into a fifth theatre alongside the main Iran-Israel confrontation, Lebanese Hezbollah’s ground and rocket engagements with Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces strikes on United States assets, and the sustained Iranian aerial campaign against Gulf states. Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem stated that the group was now in a war against both the United States and Israel and would do everything possible to defend Lebanese territory.
The United States deployed 3,500 additional troops to the Middle East over the March 29 weekend. President Trump had previously approved deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division. Saudi Arabia intercepted approximately ten drones targeting its territory on Sunday. Israel continued intensive strikes on Tehran, with powerful explosions reported in the Iranian capital on Sunday morning, as the Israel Defense Forces confirmed the deaths of an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon and intensified operations northward through Lebanese territory.
Pakistan hosts Islamabad talks as Iran allows limited Strait of Hormuz passage under diplomatic pressure
Foreign ministers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt convened in Islamabad on Sunday, March 29, 2026, in an attempt to develop a coordinated diplomatic framework to de-escalate the conflict. Pakistan announced it would host direct talks between the United States and Iran in the coming days. The mediation role played by Pakistan was formally confirmed by United States special envoy Steve Witkoff. In a significant concession tied to the diplomatic process, Iran agreed to allow 20 ships sailing under the Pakistani flag to transit the Strait of Hormuz, with two vessels crossing per day. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar described the agreement as a welcome and constructive gesture and a harbinger of peace.
United States President Donald Trump extended the pause on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure by a further ten days to Monday, April 6, 2026, citing an Iranian government request. Trump had previously postponed the energy infrastructure strikes in late March following what he described as productive conversations with Tehran. Iran disputed that any direct talks had taken place and characterised the extensions as an attempt to lower global energy prices and buy time. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to most commercial shipping. Iran’s Defence Council warned that any attack on Iranian coastal territory would trigger mine-laying across all Gulf sea lanes, which would extend disruption well beyond the strait itself.
Global energy and economic impact deepens as oil prices, aluminium, fertiliser, and shipping costs surge
The economic consequences of the conflict continued to intensify through late March 2026. Oil prices reached 114 United States dollars per barrel, the highest level since the coronavirus pandemic, before partially retreating on diplomatic signals. The International Energy Agency described the Strait of Hormuz closure as the most significant supply shock in the history of the oil market, surpassing disruptions caused by the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the 1979 Iranian revolution, and the 1990 Gulf War. Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas terminal, which sustained severe damage in earlier Iranian strikes, eliminated approximately 17 percent of global liquefied natural gas supply. Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi stated that repairs could take three to five years.
Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery, which processes approximately 730,000 barrels per day, was struck by drones on consecutive days in the final week of March, with multiple processing units shut down. Aluminium prices increased as Gulf states account for approximately 20 percent of global raw aluminium exports. Urea prices rose by 50 percent from the start of the war through late March, with one-third of the world’s fertiliser normally passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Petroleum shortages spread across southeast Asia. War risk insurance had been effectively withdrawn for most commercial shipping in the region, with rerouting via Africa’s Cape of Good Hope extending transit times by weeks and raising freight costs across global supply chains.
Gulf states maintain collective condemnation as joint diplomatic and military coordination intensifies
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan issued a joint condemnation of Iran and its affiliated armed groups in Iraq on March 26, 2026, citing attacks against regional countries, their facilities, and their infrastructure. The statement followed an earlier declaration by the United States, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates affirming their collective right to self-defence and warning that Gulf countries would take all necessary measures to protect their territories, citizens, and residents. The United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman jointly warned that continued Iranian attacks risked regional escalation. United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Sultan Al Jaber, who is also Chief Executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, described the targeting of energy infrastructure as global economic warfare.
Qatar and Ukraine signed a defence cooperation agreement on March 28 during a visit to Doha by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, covering joint investment, technological cooperation, and the exchange of expertise in countering missile and drone threats. The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed that United States forces could use British bases for defensive strikes against Iran and disclosed that Ukrainian and other specialists would assist Gulf air defence efforts. The E3 group comprising the United Kingdom, France, and Germany resolved to back proportionate defensive military measures against Iranian drones and ballistic missiles. The Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jassim al-Budaiwi stated that Iran had overcome all red lines in its conduct toward the region. Gulf states and Jordan separately demanded that Iraq stop attacks by Iran-backed armed groups from its territory. Human Rights Watch, having investigated multiple specific Iranian strikes on civilian areas in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, called on Iranian authorities to immediately take all possible measures to protect civilians across the Gulf.
Key takeaways on what Iran’s continued strikes on Kuwait and Dubai mean for Gulf security, energy markets, and regional diplomacy
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck Kuwait International Airport on March 28 and 29, 2026, damaging its radar system, and attacked Emirates Global Aluminium in the United Arab Emirates, wounding several employees and causing significant plant damage, as the conflict launched on February 28 entered its thirty-first day on March 30.
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned Gulf states on March 28 not to allow enemies to use their territory for military operations against Iran, but the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps again contradicted presidential messaging by reaffirming on March 29 that all United States military assets across the region remain primary targets.
- The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a March 30 deadline demanding the United States condemn strikes on Iranian universities or face retaliatory attacks on United States university campuses in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, expanding the conflict’s threat to institutions including Texas A&M University, Northwestern University, and New York University.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement entered the conflict on March 28, firing ballistic missiles at Israel, while 3,500 additional United States troops arrived in the Middle East and Pakistan hosted foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt in Islamabad to coordinate diplomatic efforts, with Pakistan announcing it would host direct United States-Iran talks in coming days.
- Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to produce what the International Energy Agency describes as the most significant supply shock in oil market history, with oil at 114 United States dollars per barrel, Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas terminal offline for an estimated three to five years, and urea prices up 50 percent, even as Iran’s limited concession allowing 20 Pakistani-flagged ships to transit the strait offered only marginal relief.
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