Bombshell investigative reports have exposed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates secretly launched direct military strikes inside Iran during the height of the escalating regional conflict. Documents and briefings by Western and Iranian officials confirm that these unpublicised operations mark the first time these Gulf monarchies have directly targeted Iranian territory in modern history. The revelations reveal a highly volatile, hidden dimension of a war that began with US-Israeli airstrikes in late February and has since fractured the Middle East. 

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the UAE military targeted a vital Iranian oil refinery on Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf in early April. The covert strike sparked a massive fire and knocked out the refinery's capacity for months, executed right around the time an initial diplomatic ceasefire was being brokered. Separately, the Royal Saudi Air Force conducted its own unpublicised "tit-for-tat" airstrikes against targets inside Iran in late March in retaliation for numerous Iranian drone and missile barrages hitting Saudi soil.

While both countries traditionally relied on the United States military umbrella, the scale of Iran's drone saturation strikes forced a dramatic pivot in Gulf military doctrine toward active deterrence. However, their diplomatic approaches since the strikes have diverged; the UAE has maintained a hawkish, silent stance, while Saudi Arabia utilized the leverage of its retaliatory strikes to open backchannel communications with Tehran to negotiate a de-escalation understanding. Neither the Iranian Foreign Ministry nor Gulf government officials have publicly commented on the leaked security briefings.