Trump’s utter nonsense about Persian Gulf Arab states

TEHRAN — United States President Donald Trump has said the U.S. plans to seek compensation from countries it “protected” during its war on Iran.

In an interview with CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat that aired Sunday, Trump said such countries would “pay us any and all costs we had for the war”.

“We’re going to get all that money back,” Trump said. “They’re going to do it, 100 percent. Because without us, they wouldn’t exist.”

Such condescending language toward regional Arab states is difficult to stomach. Trump is, in fact, humiliating these countries.

Iran would not have fired a single shot at its southern neighbors had American fighter jets not taken off from U.S. military bases in those countries to bomb Iran.

Even years before the current war and the previous year's war against Iran, Iranian officials had made it clear that no territory or country would be safe if it were used as a launching pad for attacks against the Islamic Republic.

The presence of U.S. military bases in these countries has proved to be a major liability rather than an asset.

Far from protecting them, these military bases have made the Persian Gulf Arab states more vulnerable to attacks.

These countries have become victims of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.