Three Gulf states are preparing for combat operations against Iran, with one already underway and two more about to begin, retired Gen. Jack Keane said Saturday after coordinated U.S.-Israeli airstrikes rocked Iranian territory and eliminated senior regime figures, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Keane told Fox News' Griff Jenkins that the Saturday morning strikes, a coordinated operation between the Israel Defense Forces and U.S. Central Command, targeted senior Iranian leaders and Iran's ballistic missile and drone infrastructure, according to military officials.
The next 48 hours, Keane said, will focus on neutralizing Iran's remaining retaliatory capabilities.
Air superiority has already been achieved.
Perhaps the most consequential element of Keane's remarks wasn't the strike damage itself but the geopolitical realignment now unfolding across the Persian Gulf. Three Gulf states, which Keane declined to identify, are moving from quiet cooperation to active participation in the campaign against Tehran.
"One has already started, and two others are about to get going."
Keane described these operations as coordinated with Adm. Cooper and Central Command, involving "coordinated, selected targets" that would "contribute to the offensive nature of what's taking place" alongside the IDF and U.S. forces. This is not passive cooperation. This is a coalition forming in real time.
And Keane had a pointed message about the diplomatic double game that Gulf nations have played for years:
"Publicly, they were supporting the Iranians and resisting the strike. Privately, they were supporting the U.S. and the IDF. I think we should knock that nonsense off once and for all. You're with us publicly and privately."
That statement alone marks a tectonic shift. For decades, Gulf states have hedged their bets, issuing pro-Palestinian or pro-Iranian rhetoric for domestic and regional consumption while quietly aligning with Washington behind closed doors. Keane is saying the era of strategic ambiguity is over. The stakes are too high for theater.
The Iranian regime apparently believed that a large-scale U.S.-Israeli operation inside its borders would trigger an international backlash severe enough to force a ceasefire. According to Keane, that bet collapsed spectacularly.
"This backfired on the Iranians. They thought that this would create an international uproar."
Instead, the uproar never materialized with the force Tehran needed, and the military response has only intensified. The Gulf states, rather than rallying to Iran's defense, are lining up against it. The regime's decades-long strategy of using proxies, ballistic threats, and diplomatic bluster to maintain regional dominance just collided with coordinated kinetic reality.
Keane acknowledged plainly that what began as a targeted operation has expanded in scope:
"The war is being expanded. It's now a regional war and, as such, pressure [is] being put on the United States and Israelis to bring this to a halt."
Note who's applying that pressure: not the coalition partners joining the fight, but the usual chorus of international voices who reflexively treat any American or Israeli use of force as the problem rather than the response. That pressure exists. It just isn't working.
The elimination of Khamenei and other senior regime figures represents a strategic blow that goes far beyond symbolism. Keane laid out the operational logic with characteristic directness:
"If you decapitate leadership, if you destroy command and control, if you conduct significant cyberattacks on the command and control capability, that is a major disruption in terms of its effects."
This is the doctrine in practice. Remove the head, degrade the communications infrastructure, and the regime's ability to coordinate a retaliatory response fragments. It doesn't guarantee the fight is over, but it means the coalition can, in Keane's words, "go where we want to go."
The targeting of Iran's ballistic missile and drone infrastructure alongside its leadership suggests this operation was designed not merely to punish but to reshape the battlefield for whatever comes next. You don't destroy launch capability and command networks if you're planning to negotiate tomorrow. You do it if you intend to dictate the terms.
Keane's emphasis on a 48-hour window for neutralizing Iran's remaining retaliatory capabilities signals that the coalition understands speed matters. A decapitated regime is most dangerous in its initial confusion, when surviving commanders may act independently or desperately. The window between organizational shock and reorganization is where decisive action either cements the advantage or allows it to slip.
The Gulf states entering the fight transforms the strategic picture entirely. Iran has spent decades cultivating a network of proxy forces and regional intimidation designed to keep its neighbors compliant.
If three of those neighbors are now actively conducting coordinated strikes against Iranian targets, the proxy model loses its deterrent power. You can't threaten a country into submission when it's already shooting back.
The frustration Keane described among Gulf states isn't new. What's new is that it has a military outlet, coordinated through Central Command and backed by the firepower that just achieved air superiority over Iran. Years of U.S. arms sales and defense partnerships are now paying operational dividends.
The international pressure to halt operations will mount. It always does. But the coalition on the ground is growing, not shrinking, and the regime that was supposed to rally the region to its defense is instead watching its neighbors line up on the other side.
Tehran built its empire on the assumption that no one would ever call the bluff. Saturday morning, the bluff got called.
