by NAINA SHARMA
Iran’s retaliatory strike on Al Udeid Air Base highly calibrated and limited but nonetheless raises urgent questions about US deterrence
On June 23, 2025, Iran launched a volley of missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military installation in the region. The strike, reportedly named Operation Basharat al-Fath (“Glad Tidings”), was Iran’s direct retaliation for the US President Donald Trump’s airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites days earlier.
While most of Iran’s 14 missiles were intercepted by US and Qatari air defenses, one landed near the base, there were no casualties but geopolitically, the strike was seismic. While Iran had directly attacked US forces before, most notably in Iraq in 2020 – this is the first time it has struck a US base located inside a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) state.
The Al Udeid attack thus marked a bold departure: an overt, calculated warning that the US military presence in the Gulf no longer guarantees insulation for host states. Iranian officials had warned that the American attack on its territory has “expanded the scope of legitimate targets.”
That threat is now no longer hypothetical, because with Al Udeid, Iran has firmly placed US bases on Arab soil inside its retaliatory framework.
Qatar responded by closing its airspace and within hours, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and the UAE followed, shutting down one of the busiest air corridors in the world. Commercial flights were canceled or diverted.
Qatar Airways suffered major disruptions, even Dubai International Airport suspended operations briefly. The economic fallout from just one attack illustrated the fragility of Gulf infrastructure in any direct US-Iran conflict.
Though airspace was reopened later, the region was shaken. Even Gulf states with recent tensions like Bahrain and the UAE quickly expressed solidarity with Qatar. Bahrain called the strike a “blatant violation of sovereignty,” and the UAE warned of the “urgent need to de-escalate.”
Iran’s strike had not only raised the military stakes but also triggered a rare moment of diplomatic unity born out of shared vulnerability.
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