Reuters reported Tuesday that the Saudi Air Force conducted covert airstrikes inside Iran in late March, the first known Saudi military action on Iranian soil, citing two Western and two Iranian officials. The disclosure came one day after the Wall Street Journal reported that the UAE struck Iran’s Lavan Island refinery in early April, knocking much of the facility offline for months. The Journal also reported that Mossad director David Barnea made at least two secret trips to the UAE in March and April under Operation Roaring Lion, with KAN News separately confirming that Shin Bet chief David Zini visited Abu Dhabi during the same window.
The Gulf war the world saw was not the war that happened. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were active co-belligerents, coordinating with Israeli intelligence on Emirati soil, and the Iranian retaliatory barrages that hit Gulf territory were responses to strikes the monarchies denied launching. The ceasefire architecture rests on a neutrality fiction Reuters and the Journal have now demolished.
The disclosures land 24 hours before the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting opens in New Delhi on May 14, with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all seated as expanded-bloc members. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive late Wednesday. Saudi and Emirati attendance has been confirmed at delegation level, though Emirati representation remains unclear at the time of publication. The Indian chair has framed the meeting around global governance reform. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal acknowledged in March that some BRICS members were involved directly in the conflict, making it, in his words, difficult to forge a consensus. The bloc failed to issue a joint statement during the war for the same reason.
What to watch: whether Iran raises the Saudi and Emirati strikes in any BRICS bilateral or communiqué language, and whether Riyadh and Abu Dhabi push back or absorb the disclosure. Silence from all three confirms the de-escalation understanding holds. Public acknowledgment by any party reopens the war’s Gulf dimension while the ceasefire is still being negotiated.