Persian Gulf states are as much adversaries of Iran as the United States and Israel because none of them condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iranian territory.

That statement was made by political scientist Artur Demchuk, Head of the Department of Comparative Political Science at the Faculty of Political Science, Moscow State University, in an interview with Vesti on March 19.

"Practically not a single Persian Gulf country condemned the US and Israeli attacks on Iran or supported Iran,” the academic said.

He added “On the contrary, they condemn Iran for its retaliatory strikes, host American military bases on their soil, and accordingly, for Iran they are the same adversaries as the United States and Israel," Demchuk said echoing Iran’s criticisms of the international community in recent hours including by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of French President Emmanuel Macron who condemned Iran striking back at Qatar’s side of the shared gas facility but on Israel’s initial strike.

The analysis comes as Iran dramatically escalated its strikes on Persian Gulf energy infrastructure on March 18, publicly naming specific targets in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE for the first time.

The IRGC ordered civilians near oil and gas facilities in all three countries to evacuate before what it said would be imminent attacks on the Jubail petrochemical complex, the SAMREF refinery, Ras Laffan, Mesaieed and the Al Hosn gas field.

Foreign ministers from 12 Arab and Islamic countries meeting in Riyadh on March 18 described Iran's strikes on Gulf states as "unjustified" and called on Tehran to halt them immediately.

However, the diplomatic picture is more complex than Demchuk's framing suggests.

Gulf states have repeatedly stated that their territories would not be used to launch attacks against Iran, and Oman has played an active mediation role.

Following the retaliatory Iranian strike on Qatar, Donald Trump was quick to respond, saying “The United States knew nothing about this particular attack” on his Truth Social social media application.

His claims were quickly dismissed by the official spokesperson of the Israeli Embassy in London who on BBC Radio 4 on March 19 said that “there was no daylight between Israel and the US” on operations between the two.