Edit:

I also disagree with the takeaway in this article.

If dual use civilian infrastructure can be viewed as a valid target and compartmentalization of relations is no longer viewed as a justification for neutrality, we have returned to the era of total war.

Iran's argument is that the UAE+Qatar are combatants because they have based American troops despite also allowing IRGC basing and bypassing of sanctions.

If this logic (which imo is very flawed) makes the UAE+Qatar valid targets and combatants, then the US is justified in striking Iran as Iran has been directly aiding and abetting Russia's invasion of Ukraine with troops in Crimea conducting drone strikes [0] and providing ballistic missiles to Russia to strike Ukraine [1].

By extension, this means all foreign relations have to be bipolar, which means admitting we are in a de facto World War (something which Fiona Hill has brought up literally hours before the Iran War began [2]).

Edit: can't reply

> Imagine the degree of fall out if say Estonia allowed Ukraine to use their country to set up a base and they started attacking russian infrastructure or Kaliningrad from there

> And for once I would agree with russia

Does that include the US and EU [3] providing lethal targeting and geoint capabilities to Ukraine as well as rearming Ukraine?

Because to Iran, Ukraine providing defensive capabilities to Gulf States has now made it a direct combatant against Iran [4].

This is why Iran's strikes across West Asia (including Cyprus) was so destabilizing. If providing dual use capabilities means you should be viewed as a combatant despite also abetting Iran well before the US scaled up it's presence in the late 1990s, then we need to accept we are in a World War.

[0] - https://www.csis.org/analysis/chapter-8-extending-battlespac...

[0] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/24/iranian-milita...

[1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-12/iran-is-s...

[2] - https://xcancel.com/FrankRGardner/status/2027098560647348410

[3] - https://www.csis.org/analysis/chapter-8-extending-battlespac...

[4] - https://www.kyivpost.com/post/72965

AWS has officially removed all EC2 instances in Bahrain from their docs

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620381