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It was on alert. In Riyadh, Washington and other Middle Eastern capitals. Saudi Arabian intelligence has reported to the United States that Iran is on the verge of attacking targets in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. All regional and US forces have been placed on alert.
According to Riyadh, the move would come with the need to divert citizens’ attention from the internal protests that continue to anger Iran despite attempts to quell them. Tehran’s intention is to attack both Saudi Arabia and the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, which hosts an American base. The street protests now demanding the ouster of the regime also had an ethnic dimension from the start: Mahsa Amini, the girl who died after being arrested by vice squads, belonged to the Kurdish minority that has long complained of violence and discrimination.
The US took the information seriously. “We are concerned about the threat scenario and are in constant contact with the Saudis through military and intelligence channels,” a spokesman for the National Security Council told the Wall Street Journal. “We will not hesitate to defend our interests and our partners in the region.”
The fact that Iran has been hitting Iraqi Kurdistan with rockets and drones since September speaks for the concreteness of the threat. A US military plane was shot down, although Tehran blamed separatist groups in the area. The Iranian government has also publicly accused the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel of fomenting the demonstrations.
The commander of the Islamic Republican Guard, Major General Hossein Salami, had threatened Saudi Arabia last month over media coverage of the protests: the news is broadcast in Farsi via satellite and is therefore also visible to Iranians from various channels, including Iran International. based in London and funded by the Saudis. “This is our final warning – Salami said, according to official Iraqi media during some military exercises – you are involved in these problems and you know that you are vulnerable.”