Well it's the same, old song, but with a different beat now that...

Iran has pledged not to strike Gulf Arab states in any war with the United States.

Until 2008, Iran warned that GCC states, most of whom host American troops, would become targets in any war with the United States.

"We realize that there is worry among neighboring Muslim countries whose lands host U.S. military stations," Gen. Mohammed Ali Jaafari, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said.

In a television interview, Jaafari said Iran reserves the right to respond to any attack. But the IRGC commander said civilians in GCC countries with a U.S. military presence would not be harmed.

"If the United States launches a war against us
and if it uses these bases to attack Iran with missiles
then through the strength and precision of our own missiles
we are capable of targeting only the U.S. military forces
that attack us," Jaafari said on Feb. 2.

The United States has deployed troops, aircraft and other military equipment in such GCC countries as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain contains a pro-Iranian Shi'ite majority.

"We do not trust either one of them [the United States or Iran]," Adel Al Maawada, chairman of Bahrain's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, defense and national security, said. "But I hope Gen. Jaafari is telling the truth."

Bahrain hosts the US Navy's main and major base in the gulf. BY THE WAY. So WTF?

Gulf analysts said the prospects of an Iranian-U.S. war in 2008 were low. They cited a change in Washington's position since the release of an intelligence report in December 2007 that asserted that Teheran had ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003.