The most resilient falsehood circulating across Muslim discourse today is the claim that American military bases in the GCC represent foreign occupation, submission to Western imperialism, or a betrayal of Islamic sovereignty. This narrative — advanced most vocally by Tehran and amplified uncritically across emotionally-driven platforms — conveniently omits one foundational and historically verifiable fact: between 1980 and 1990 alone, Iranian state militias and IRGC-backed networks executed offensive terror operations across GCC territory — coups, coordinated bombings, missile strikes, hijackings, and assassination attempts — years before any American soldier, Patriot battery or THAAD installation existed on Arabian soil. The American military presence in the Gulf did not precede Iranian aggression; it followed it.
These bases are sovereign Saudi, Emirati, Qatari, and Bahraini military installations — built, owned, and controlled by GCC governments — hosting allied forces under bilateral defence agreements that each state retains the unilateral right to terminate. The designation “US bases” is an instrument of Iranian propaganda, deliberately engineered to defame independent Muslim nations as occupied territories rather than autonomous decision-makers. Iran itself, an eschatologically and theologically motivated State, maintains its own strategic partnerships with Orthodox Russia, Atheist China, and Hindu India — “whither gone, betrayal of Islamic sovereignty?”
Iran was already executing double-digit terror operations across the GCC throughout the 1980s — years before any US military bases existed—so blaming US presence as the cause is historically inaccurate.
Incidences of terrorism:
🔴 1981 — Iran-backed coup attempt to overthrow Bahrain’s government. 73 arrested, trained in Tehran, armed by the IRGC.
🔴 1983 — Seven coordinated bombings across Kuwait in 90 minutes. Embassies, airport, oil refineries, and power stations.
🔴 1984 — Iran directly attacked a Saudi oil tanker in Saudi territorial waters — to which Saudi Arabia responded by shooting down an Iranian Phantom jet. This was not a proxy operation, it was Iran’s own military.
🔴 1984 — Kuwait Airways hijacked to Tehran. Hijackers were released and allowed to walk free by Iranian authorities.
🔴 1985 — Suicide bomber strikes the Emir of Kuwait’s motorcade. 4 killed. Hezbollah threatened “all Gulf thrones will shake.”
🔴 1985 — Café bombings in Kuwait City. 11 killed, 89 wounded. Civilians.
🔴 1987 — Iranian operatives incite Hajj riots in Mecca. 400+ dead. Khomeini then called on Saudis to overthrow the House of Saud.
🔴 1987 — Iran fires Silkworm missiles directly at Kuwait’s oil terminal. Not a proxy. Not a militia. Iran’s own military.
🔴 1988 — Second Kuwait Airways hijacking. 16 days. Three continents. Two passengers shot dead. Operated from Iranian soil.
🔴 1989 — Bombings near the Grand Mosque, Makkah. 16 executed for the plot.
That is ten major operations — coups, bombings, hijackings, missile strikes and assassination attempts in Arab countries — BEFORE 1991. Before US bases. Before Patriot missiles. Before THAAD.
To those who invoke the Shariah to condemn these agreements — the Shariah itself bears witness against them.
When the noble Prophet ﷺ established the Constitution of Medina (622 CE) — a formal mutual defence pact with the Jewish tribes of Medina – Banu Qaynuqa‘, Banu an-Nadeer & Banu Qurayzah – he ﷺ explicitly obligated all signatories to collectively defend Medina against external attack.
He ﷺ struck the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (628 CE) — a ten-year peace accord with the pagan Quraysh — on terms his own Companions initially found difficult to accept. He sought battlefield intelligence from Bishr ibn Sufyan, a polytheist, during the Hudaybiyyah expedition.
Classical and contemporary scholars – Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir and Ibn Baz affirm: “Such treaties are permissible and legitimate under Islamic law. – They fall under ‘Aqd (binding covenants) which must be honored (Qur’an 5:1)”
Our scholars quote the assistance of Safwān bin Umayyah in battle, who was not a Muslim at the time, fought alongside the Prophet ﷺ at the battle of Hunayn and the battle of Tā’if.
They utilize as proof also the fact that when the Prophet ﷺ found out that Abu Sufyān had gathered an army against the Muslims on the day of Uhud, he ﷺ said to the Jews of the tribe of Nadeer:
“Indeed, you and we are people of scripture, and there is between the people of scripture the aiding of each other. So either you fight alongside us or give us some weapons”
And upon this position we find Imam Abu Hanīfah, ash-Shāfiʿī, al-Laith and al-Awzāʿī. Amīr as-Sanʿānī also concluded that seeking their military assistance is permissible.
Upon reflection, which Muslim country in 1990 had the military capability to protect civilian populations in GCC, oil installations, water desalination plants, coastlines and borders from IRGC Silkworm missiles, Iranian-trained militias, and state-sponsored coup networks?
The answer is none. There was no Islamic defence umbrella. There was no Muslim NATO. There was no regional power willing or able to deter a theocratic revolutionary state that had explicitly declared the Gulf monarchies its ideological enemies.
Iran — self-declared champion of Islamic revolution and enemy of USA alliances — is itself strategically allied with Hindu India, Communist China, and Orthodox Russia. Iran gave its bases to Russia to strike Muslims in Syria. Hypocrisy does not require elaboration!
The GCC did not invite US bases out of luxury or submission. They invited them out of necessity — because Iran had spent a decade proving it would strike mosques, airports, oil terminals, electricity grids, and heads of state without provocation, without warning, and without consequence – and make emotional fools out of naive Muslims.
And what did the GCC do after all of this? They extended friendship. Saudi Arabia asked China to broker a peace deal with Iran in 2023 — despite gaining almost nothing from it except the hope of stability in Yemen and Syria. Even today, GCC countries are showing restraint as they consider this as Nethayahu’s war.
Another Fact: Iranian casualties caused by GCC military response across 44 years of documented aggression: 0/0.
So no — we are not apologetic that GCC nations built defence agreements, invited allied forces, and installed Patriot & THAAD systems on their soil. They did it to avoid becoming the next Syria. The next Lebanon. The next Yemen. The next Iraq — all countries where Iranian majoosi militias were given an inch, and they annihilated entire sunni nations.
The American military forces in the GCC are not the cause of Iranian aggression — they are the consequence of it. And if current regional trajectories hold, this defence architecture is poised to deepen — with indications that Pakistani ground forces may soon operate under an expanded bilateral defence framework, with Saudi installations made available to the Pakistani Army for joint exercises and the active defence of Saudi borders against IRGC-backed militia incursions advancing from Iraq and Yemen.
Tehran’s decades-long campaign to frame GCC defence agreements as capitulation to Western imperialism may soon confront an inconvenient new reality — Muslim armies, on Muslim soil, defending Muslim nations, against Iranian aggression.
May Allah almighty protect the Land of Tawheed, Custodians of Sunnah and the progeny of Sahabah!
About the Author: The author is a Research Associate at the University of Karachi, with over two decades of analytical writing spanning geopolitics, international relations, economics, history, and the rapidly evolving strategic landscape of the Middle East.