US military bases in Middle East under threat over nuclear fallout with Iran
Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran unless a new nuclear deal is reached, only escalating tensions in a region already on edge.
‘If they do not make a deal, there will be bombing,’ the US president told NBC News on Sunday.
He added: ‘There is a chance that if they do not make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago, that brought them to a position that they very much wanted to be.’
Iran’s leaders fired back, warning that ‘someone in a glass room does not throw stones at anyone’ – a clear reference to America’s military presence in the Middle East.
Iran fires back at Trump’s bomb threat
Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said: ‘The Americans have at least 10 bases with 50,000 troops in the region, which means they are sitting in a glass room.’
With more than a dozen US bases in the region – all within Iran’s missile range – the exchange of threats has reignited fears that a miscalculation could spark a devastating war.
As of October 2024, US defence officials said there were at least 43,000 servicemembers in the Middle East, many on ships at sea, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
In total, the US has military facilities across at least 19 sites – eight of them considered to be permanent by many regional analysts – in countries like Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.
The US military also uses large bases in Djibouti and Turkey, which are part of other regional commands but often contribute significantly to missions in the Middle East.
Iran’s military arsenal largest in region
Meanwhile, Iran boasts more than 3,000 ballistic missiles, the largest arsenal in the Middle East, and has shown willingness to use them if it is pushed into a corner.
This arsenal does not include its burgeoning land-attack cruise missile force.
Vast improvements have also been made over the past decade in the precision and accuracy of the missiles.
Many Iranian missiles are also inherently capable of carrying nuclear payloads, which has long been an international concern.
Timeline of nuclear fallout
The first steps of the fallout between Iran and the US were made during Trump’s first term in the White House, in 2017-2021.
A 2015 deal with global superpowers required Iran to limit its nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.
But in 2018, the US leader withdrew, imposing sweeping sanctions.
It was after that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran had amassed enough fissile material for multiple bombs but had made no effort to build one.
On March 7, Trump said he had written to Khamenei, warning that he must either agree to fresh negotiations or face a military confrontation.
But Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has ruled out direct negotiations with the Trump administration over the country’s nuclear programme.
Instead, he has signalled a willingness for ‘indirect talks’.
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