# Kuwaiti Influence > [!note] Scope > This page covers **Kuwait's influence operations directed at the United States** — lobbying, funding, information operations and elite capture. > For the country itself see [[Kuwait]]. **Kuwait** is a small, oil-rich Gulf monarchy — an emirate of about five million people, two-thirds of them non-citizens — that has been a **Major Non-NATO Ally** of the United States since 2004 and an American garrison since the [[Gulf War]] of 1991 restored it after the Iraqi occupation. Camp Arifjan and Ali Al Salem Air Base were the logistics spine of the 2003 [[Iraq War]] and remain the largest U.S. Army footprint in the region. Its politics are the Gulf's most parliamentary and, since the emir suspended the National Assembly in May 2024, the least; its security posture is defined by [[Iran]] across the water and a sovereign wealth fund, the Kuwait Investment Authority, that is the oldest in the world (see [[Sovereign Wealth Fund]]). ## The Iran war Kuwait is in the vault because the [[Iran War 2026]] made it a battlefield: - **[[Port Shuaiba Attack]] (March 1, 2026)** — an Iranian drone strike on a makeshift operations center near Camp Arifjan killed six U.S. service members, the deadliest single attack on American forces of the war, and became a scandal when it emerged that warnings had been ignored and the casualties initially concealed. - **June 2026** — after a reported Iranian strike damaged Kuwait International Airport, the [[Department of State]] approved a possible ~$1.98 billion [[Foreign Military Sale]] of [[Anduril]] counter-drone systems — see [[Anduril Kuwait Counter-UAS FMS Approval]], one of the war's clearest examples of the arms-sale-as-consolation pattern. - **July 8, 2026** — after the United States resumed strikes on Iran on July 7, breaking the June 17 [[Trump-Iran MOU 2026]], the IRGC retaliated against U.S. facilities in [[Bahrain]] and Kuwait; the [[NATO Summit Ankara 2026]] was under way. The Gulf monarchies that joined or flanked the [[Abraham Accords]] were promised that alignment with Israel and Washington would deter Tehran; Kuwait, which never signed, absorbed the same strikes. That is the point the [[Foreign Influence Hub]] draws from the small states: the guarantee runs one way. ## See Also - [[Iran]] · [[Iran War 2026]] · [[Iran War 2026 Timeline]] · [[Port Shuaiba Attack]] · [[Trump-Iran MOU 2026]] - [[Anduril Kuwait Counter-UAS FMS Approval]] · [[Anduril]] · [[Foreign Military Sale]] · [[Department of State]] - [[Gulf War]] · [[Iraq War]] · [[Bahrain]] · [[Saudi Arabia]] · [[Sovereign Wealth Fund]] · [[Foreign Influence Hub]]