Why Iran Continues to Strike Arab Nations but Avoids Targeting US Aircraft Carriers

Iran has consistently retaliated against American attacks by striking the region, but notably avoids targeting US aircraft carriers. While US Central Command (CENTCOM) has hit railway stations, power plants, and water infrastructure inside Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has responded by bombing civilian airports and water desalination facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain.

Analysts suggest a clear logic behind this strategy. Retired Lebanese general and military analyst Elias Hanna told Al Jazeera that targeting a US warship would trigger a massive American response. He added that attacking naval assets is also militarily difficult due to their advanced defence systems.

Atifeh Taghiani, a professor at the University of Tehran, argued that Iran views the Gulf states as complicit because US strikes are allegedly launched from bases in those countries. However, Abdullah al-Shayji, a political science professor from Kuwait University, dismissed this as repeated Iranian propaganda. He noted that the US strikes are primarily launched from aircraft carriers, such as the USS George H.W. Bush and USS Abraham Lincoln, positioned less than 150 kilometres off the Iranian coast.

Al-Shayji described Iran’s strategy of targeting Gulf neighbours as a strategic mistake, warning that it is dragging countries like Kuwait, which strongly opposed normalisation with Israel, into a conflict they did not seek.