Iran has made threats against Bahrain over the Gulf kingdom's ties with Israel, an Israeli defense expert said Wednesday.
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A new report by Lt. Col. (Res.) Miki Segal of the Jerusalem Center for Public and State Affairs noted that the Islamic republic has recently hinted on several occasions that it will not hesitate to launch missiles at Bahrain if it feels that Israeli activity in the country "undermines Iran's security interests."
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalized ties with Israel in the fall of 2020 under the historic Abraham Accords, later expanded to include Sudan and Morocco, as well.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh this week linked the expected appointment of an Israeli military attaché to the US Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, to the Revolutionary Guards' missile strike on Erbil last month.
Asked about the appointment's implications for Iran, Khatibzadeh said that Tehran's response "can be summed up in one word: Erbil," adding that Israel "is doing everything in its power to prevent the normalization of the situation in the Gulf region."
Moderate Gulf states have been at odds with Iran over its sponsoring of global terrorism and use of regional proxies, like the Houthi rebels in Yemen, to undermine Gulf regimes. The Houthis have mounted several strikes against Iran's main foe in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, where key oil facilities have come under attack.
Khatibzadeh's statement was later echoed in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated daily Javan, which warned, "What happened in Erbil can happen in Bahrain."
Iran has, in fact, warned Israel that "anything bad that happens in the Gulf will not go unanswered," the report said, further citing IRCG Commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, call "on the Zionists to stop sowing evil in the area and warned that if they did not do so, they would feel the bitter taste of missile attacks."
"The connection Iran creates between the two events indicates that Tehran will not hesitate to attack targets in Bahrain - independently or using one of its proxies, like the Houthis in Yemen or pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, if it feels threatened," Segal said.
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