Air defenses were able to thwart, almost completely, Iran’s attack on Israel, reportedly due to intelligence from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Kervin Aucoin, a former lead intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance coordinator for the U.S. Army and the host of “The Weekend Explained” podcast, tells NTD that backchannels were used to send a heads-up from Iran to Gulf states, which then was transmitted to the United States and Israel, with Iran intentionally calculating the attack as it cannot afford an escalation with Israel.