Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ruled out the use of its airspace and territory for a potential U.S. attack on Iran, complicating the Trump administration’s options in response to Tehran’s violent crackdown against Iranian protesters.
The Saudi move follows a similar statement Monday by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry.
The statements from the two Gulf states represent a foreign policy setback for the Trump administration as it seeks to ratchet up pressure on Tehran, which has defied Washington’s demand that it end uranium enrichment and end the suppression of protesters.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, outlined his country’s position while talking by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
A Saudi readout of the Tuesday call said that the crown prince had stressed that the kingdom “will not allow its airspace or territory to be used for any military actions against Iran.”
Saudi Arabia is worried about being drawn into a conflict with Iran, which attacked the kingdom’s oil facilities in 2019 during President Trump’s first term in office.
“Both Saudi and the UAE have been targets of attacks by Iran and their proxies. A degraded and less threatening Iranian regime is in their interests, but they worry about regional unrest and Iranian retribution and don’t want to be the tip of the American spear,” said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Asked for comment, a White House spokesperson said Trump “is watching the situation in Iran very seriously and all options are on the table if the regime executes protestors.”
Former high-ranking American military officers said that the Saudi and U.A.E. moves would hamper the Trump administration’s planning for military action, but wouldn’t prevent it if Washington was determined to act.
“From a military perspective, it increases operational complexity and costs for any U.S. action against Iran but won’t stop it,” said David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who played a key role in the 1991 Desert Storm air campaign against Iraq, which the U.S. led from a command post in Saudi Arabia.
Deptula added that the Saudi and U.A.E. statements would also lower “the political cost for Tehran of resisting external pressures.”
The Trump administration has dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying warships to the Middle East, including vessels equipped with cruise missiles. It also has several squadrons of F-15E fighters in Jordan.
The U.S. still could deliver a military blow by using those assets and by drawing on B-2 stealth bombers and other long-range bombers that could fly from the U.S. or be positioned at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.
“I think this could force us to rely more heavily on carrier-based aviation or long-range assets coming from CONUS or bases like Diego Garcia,” said Joseph Votel, a retired Army general, using the acronym for the continental U.S.
“This action puts pressure on other regional states who may be considering support for a U.S. operation,” added Votel, who led U.S. Central Command from 2016 to 2019. “Finally, it means that an operation will have more of a U.S. flavor rather than a robust regional coalition against Iran.”
Trump has nurtured close ties with the Saudi crown prince, who visited the White House in November. At the time, Trump promised to sell advanced F-35 fighters to Saudi Arabia and defended the crown prince against allegations that he orchestrated the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia confirmed in a defense cooperation agreement that the U.S. was its “primary strategic partner,” and an agreement was announced that provided Riyadh with more access to U.S. artificial intelligence technologies.
Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com, Shelby Holliday at shelby.holliday@wsj.com and Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com