Satellite image shows the impact of Iranian armed forces’ precision strikes at Arifjan base which hosts US forces in Kuwait, in March 2026<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is examining whether to pull troops out of the Gulf as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran<\/a>, with the Pentagon weighing the risks facing large US<\/a> bases in the region that have come under Iranian<\/a> drone and missile attack.<\/p>\n The evaluation is being led by the Department of War\u2019s policy office, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, saying the war was viewed as \u201ca once-in-a-generation chance for the Pentagon to reconsider its presence in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n The report said that the US has already signalled that it might not rebuild its bases attacked by Iran to pre-war status.<\/p>\n The Washington Post corroborates Middle East Eye\u2019s June report that cited current and former US officials as saying that a reckoning with the US\u2019s old basing framework was expected as a result of the war.<\/p>\n Former senior US officials have raised the prospect of a drawdown for months.<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is that we are not as inclined to occupy these bases now that we have seen what the Iranians can throw at them,\u201d David Petraeus, a former director of the CIA and head of Centcom, which oversees all military forces in the Middle East,\u00a0told<\/a> Bloomberg in May.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is much more than when I was commander at Central Command,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Another former head of Centcom, General Frank McKenzie, said in July that the US<\/a> needs to relocate its bases in the Gulf to Israel<\/a> and neighbouring countries to better protect its assets from Iran\u2019s missiles and drones.<\/p>\n No one in their right mind would ever put the Centcom forward headquarters, you know, 100 miles away from Iran, [in Qatar], yet that\u2019s where it is,\u201d he told<\/a> the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, referring to al-Udeid military base.<\/p>\n McKenzie said that the current US basing system in the Middle East has become an \u201cartefact\u201d, describing it as a legacy of the Cold War, when the US was concerned about a potential Soviet invasion of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states and later, the counter-insurgencies the US waged in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n \u201c[The US] strategy does not match the reality on the ground,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The Washington Post reported that US Admiral Bradley Cooper, the current head of Centcom, has supported discussions about potentially moving US troops westward from the Gulf.<\/p>\n Iran has already effectively forced the US away from the Gulf coast. The Islamic Republic has targeted Bahrain, home to the US\u2019s Fifth Fleet; Qatar, home to US Central Command\u2019s headquarters; and air bases in Kuwait and the UAE.<\/p>\n The US\u2019s presence in small Gulf states close to Iran, such as Kuwait and Bahrain, has been exposed as particularly vulnerable. The US already relocated west during the war.<\/p>\n MEE was the first to report that the US gained access to Taif Air Base in Saudi Arabia in March after Iran pummelled Prince Sultan Air Base, southeast of Riyadh.<\/p>\n