Saudi Arabia launched previously undisclosed strikes on Iran during the Middle East war, Reuters reported Tuesday, opening a new and more dangerous picture of how far the Iran crisis spread beyond the publicly acknowledged U.S.-Israel campaign and Tehran’s retaliation.
The Reuters report, republished by Internazionale and summarized in The Jerusalem Post’s live coverage, said Saudi Arabia carried out numerous unpublicized attacks on Iran in late March. Reuters attributed the account to two Western officials briefed on the matter and two Iranian officials.
That is the new angle. List25 already covered Monday’s Wall Street Journal/Reuters reporting that the United Arab Emirates secretly struck Iran’s Lavan Island refinery. This is different: Reuters now reports that Saudi Arabia, the Gulf’s heavyweight power and a country that has tried to keep a public de-escalation posture, also hit Iranian soil.
Reuters said it could not confirm the specific targets. A senior Saudi foreign ministry official did not directly address whether the strikes took place when asked for comment, while Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters. That caveat matters, but the reported sourcing still makes this one of the most significant late-breaking developments in the Iran crisis.
What Reuters reported
According to Reuters, the attacks were assessed by two Western officials to have been carried out by the Saudi Air Force in late March. One official described them as “tit-for-tat strikes” after Saudi Arabia had been hit during the wider war.
Reuters framed the reported strikes as the first known direct Saudi military action on Iranian soil. If accurate, that would mark a major shift for Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has long relied heavily on the United States for protection, but the war exposed vulnerabilities in that security umbrella as missiles and drones reached Gulf states.
The report also said Iran had struck all six Gulf Cooperation Council states with missiles and drones after the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran began on February 28. Those attacks hit not only U.S. military facilities but also civilian sites, airports, and oil infrastructure, while the Strait of Hormuz crisis disrupted global trade.
Saudi Arabia’s public line stayed cautious
The most important part of the Reuters report is not simply that Saudi Arabia allegedly struck back. It is that Riyadh appears to have done so while still trying to stop the war from becoming an open Saudi-Iran conflict.
Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia informed Iran of the strikes and that intensive diplomatic engagement followed. Iranian and Western officials told the news agency that this produced an informal understanding to de-escalate. One Iranian official told Reuters the move was aimed at ceasing hostilities, protecting mutual interests, and preventing further escalation.
That sequence is crucial. It suggests the Gulf side of the war may have included both hidden retaliation and quiet crisis management at the same time. Publicly, Riyadh kept stressing restraint. Privately, according to Reuters, Saudi Arabia was also warning that more retaliation could follow.
Reuters cited a tally of Saudi defense ministry statements showing more than 105 drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia during the week of March 25-31, falling to just over 25 between April 1-6. Western sources told Reuters that projectiles fired at Saudi Arabia in the days before the broader ceasefire were assessed to have come from Iraq rather than Iran itself, suggesting Tehran curtailed direct strikes while allied groups continued operating.
Why this is bigger than one strike report
The Saudi report lands after a brutal run of Iran-crisis developments. On Tuesday alone, List25 covered Iran’s wider definition of the Strait of Hormuz, Kuwait’s allegation that it foiled an IRGC-linked sea infiltration attempt, and reported Iraq-Pakistan energy passage understandings with Iran. The story is no longer just whether Hormuz is open or closed. It is about how many states have been pulled into a shadow version of the war.
The Jerusalem Post’s live coverage summarized the new Reuters item under the headline that Saudi Arabia secretly launched attacks on Iran during regional escalations, while also noting that Reuters could not confirm the targets. The same live file carried other current pressure points, including Hezbollah drone fire in Lebanon and regional concern over the Iran proposal track.
Al Jazeera reported Tuesday that Pakistan is still trying to salvage U.S.-Iran diplomacy as the ceasefire faces collapse. That diplomatic push now sits beside a harder reality: Gulf states that were once trying to avoid open war may already have crossed into direct military retaliation, even if they avoided publicly saying so.
For Washington, that complicates the endgame. A ceasefire between the United States and Iran does not automatically settle the hidden accounts between Iran and Gulf governments. If Saudi Arabia and the UAE both struck Iran during the war, Tehran’s future calculations will not be limited to U.S. bases, Israeli targets, or Hormuz shipping. Gulf capitals may now be treated as active participants, whether they admit it publicly or not.
The shadow war is coming into view
The biggest risk is that delayed revelations reshape the crisis after the shooting slows. Saudi Arabia and Iran restored ties in 2023 through a China-brokered détente. Reuters’ new reporting suggests that relationship survived a period of direct military retaliation only because both sides decided escalation had limits.
That is fragile as hell. A hidden strike campaign can stay contained only while both sides agree not to expose or answer every blow. Once the details start surfacing, leaders face pressure to deny, justify, or retaliate.
So the Saudi revelation is not just a retrospective detail from March. It changes the map of the Iran crisis now. The war was wider than the public knew, the Gulf states were less passive than they appeared, and any lasting deal will have to account for a shadow conflict that is only now becoming visible.
Sources: Reuters via Internazionale; The Jerusalem Post live coverage; Al Jazeera.