Oliver Conway

But there are early reports that some targets that have yet to be formally identified have been struck.

Now, the Iranians claim that they've been after the U.S.

Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, but it's not entirely clear yet whether they've been able to strike it or not.

Now, in terms of a response, Bahrain is a very small state.

It's just over a million people.

So it does not have the independent sort of national military capability to launch retaliatory strikes.

What Bahrain has been doing is working closely with its allies and partners, including its fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, so other Arab Gulf countries.

But there isn't a unified Arab Gulf position on how to respond to the attacks by Iran.

There have been individual retaliatory strikes by Saudi Arabia, by the United Arab Emirates, but those have been carried out individually, not as a group.

So without a unified Arab Gulf umbrella, it's unlikely that Bahrain will resort to military retaliation against those Iranian attacks.

Is that lack of a coherent position agreed by all GCC members, do you think weakening their influence on Washington, on getting Washington to do what they would like to do, what is in the interest of the Gulf in terms of either ending or prosecuting a war with Iran?

Obviously, the Gulf states, they run up against Israel's influence over Washington.

As a matter of fact, the Arab Gulf states were unified and not wanting the United States to begin this war in the first place.

But it's quite clear that Benjamin Netanyahu had the upper hand there in pushing the Trump administration forward.

to do so under the pretext that this would be a short and sweet war that would end up toppling the Iranian regime quite quickly.

Now, we know that this is not how things turned out.

As it so happens right now, I think there is a unified Arab Gulf desire in seeing the United States bring an end to this war through a negotiated settlement with Iran.

So perhaps the Arab Gulf states might not be working in close coordination with

with one another to influence the Trump administration in that direction.

But at the very least, I do think they are united in this broad desire to see a quick end to this war through negotiations.