U.S. allies in the Gulf region are bustling in preparation for the possibility of a large-scale U.S. airstrike on Iran as early as this week, the U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 2nd local time.

According to the WSJ, Gulf nations such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are conducting emergency preparedness drills inside and around major facilities, including international airports.

In Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, which has been targeted by attacks from Yemen's pro-Iran Houthi rebels, classes at schools of all levels are scheduled to be conducted online this week as well.

Some attendees of a large-scale international energy conference held in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, are shortening their stays in the country following recommendations from their government, the WSJ reported.

Diplomatic missions of the Netherlands and Belgium in the Gulf region also warned on October 29 that security conditions in the Middle East could rapidly deteriorate.

U.S. President Donald Trump has shown a dual approach, pressuring Iran by repeatedly mentioning the possibility of resuming strikes on Iran just ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, while also placing weight on finding a solution through dialogue and negotiation.

In an interview with the online media outlet Axios on the same day, President Trump said regarding whether strikes on Iran would resume, "We'll do something one way or the other, but there's no need to rush," adding, "We are talking to them and it's going well."

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said at a security conference over the weekend that he hopes diplomatic efforts to defuse military tensions between Iran and the U.S. will bear fruit, while also noting that the UAE is "preparing for the worst."

Badr Abdelatty, Egypt's foreign minister who attended the same conference, emphasized that any new conflict would cause even greater damage, and that diplomatic efforts over the coming days and weeks will be critically important to prevent it.

However, negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, mediated by Qatar, are currently deadlocked.

Officials involved in the mediation said that the U.S. and Iran have still failed to narrow their differences over which side should make concessions first to break the impasse in negotiations.

Amid sluggish progress in finding a breakthrough in negotiations, Gulf nations are bracing themselves, believing that the shockwave could be more powerful than in the past if armed clashes between the U.S. and Iran resume.

They are particularly wary of the vicious cycle in which a U.S. airstrike could trigger Iranian retaliation, prompting Iran and pro-Iranian armed groups to launch attacks across the Gulf region's economy and civilian infrastructure.

The WSJ reported that Gulf nations fear an Iranian attack could be more destructive than when the war peaked in March, and that some Arab nations have warned they would retaliate individually or jointly if infrastructure is attacked by Iran.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)