The United Arab Emirates signaled a dramatic break from decades of cautious diplomacy with Iran on Sunday, as Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan branded Tehran “terrorists” and the country’s top presidential adviser demanded long-term security guarantees that would effectively neutralize Iran’s military capabilities permanently.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, posted a blunt five-word declaration on X: “We will never be blackmailed by terrorists.” The post was a direct response to Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador to the United States, who had questioned the UAE’s deepening alignment with Washington, writing that it meant entrusting the country’s fate to a power that had drawn it into a devastating conflict.
The exchange drew immediate attention for its lexical shift. The UAE’s official foreign ministry channels had already been describing Iran’s strikes as “unprovoked and terrorist missile attacks,” but Sheikh Abdullah’s personal use of the word “terrorists” as a label for Iran itself, rather than merely its actions, marked an evident change in tone towards Iran.
Araud, who served as France’s ambassador to the US, the UN, and Israel before retiring in 2019, has been a prominent skeptic of the US-led campaign, recently arguing on Euronews that Washington has shifted its stated objectives from regime change to the nuclear program to destroying Iran’s military apparatus without clarity on the endgame.
– Top Adviser Calls For Solutions Beyond A Ceasefire
Hours later, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, published a lengthy post on X that went considerably further than previous Emirati statements about war aims.
Writing in Arabic, Gargash declared that the UAE’s strategic thinking does not stop at ending hostilities. He said the focus is not solely on a ceasefire, but rather on formulating long-term solutions that guarantee the stability of the Arabian Gulf, including curbing threats from Iran’s nuclear program, missiles, drones, and what he called the “bullying of the straits.”
“It is not reasonable for this aggression to turn into a permanent state of threat,” Gargash wrote, in the clearest indication yet that Abu Dhabi views the current conflict as an opportunity to reshape the regional security order rather than simply restore the pre-war status quo.
The remarks build on a pattern of escalating language from Gargash over the past three weeks.
Speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event on March 18, he said Iran’s attacks on the Gulf would strengthen Israel’s role in the region and deepen Gulf security ties with Washington. “We’re not seeing 2,000 Israeli missiles and drones targeting us,” he told participants. “We’re seeing 2,000 Iranian missiles and drones targeting us.”
A relationship shattered in three weeks
The rhetorical escalation caps a dramatic reversal in UAE-Iran relations. As recently as late February, the two countries’ foreign ministers exchanged Ramadan greetings in a phone call, with Sheikh Abdullah emphasizing the importance of successful US-Iran negotiations for regional peace.
The UAE closed its embassy in Tehran on March 1, just days after the war began, following a series of Iranian missile and drone strikes on Emirati territory.
Since then, the scale of Iranian attacks on the UAE has been staggering. As of March 21, UAE air defenses had engaged 338 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,740 drones launched from Iran. Eight people have been killed, including two military personnel, and 157 have been injured.
The civilian dead include nationals from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Palestine, underscoring the vulnerability of the UAE’s vast expatriate population.
The foreign minister offered condolences to the families of all victims and condemned what he called 18 consecutive days of attacks involving more than 2,000 projectiles targeting civilian infrastructure, airports, and residential areas.
Debris from intercepted missiles has struck populated areas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, damaging areas around prominent landmarks and Dubai International Airport.
The UAE has also moved aggressively on the domestic security front. Authorities have been targeting Iranian bank accounts, companies, and trade networks in a move that could significantly disrupt Tehran’s access to foreign currency.
On March 20, the UAE State Security Department announced it had uncovered a terror network linking Hezbollah and Iran, arresting members on charges of funding terrorism and money laundering.
Separately, more than 100 people have been arrested for filming and posting about Iranian strikes, in what rights organizations describe as a crackdown on threats to the Gulf state’s carefully cultivated image of safety and stability.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE were neutral before the war began, but as they have been attacked, Gulf leaders have come to the conclusion that they cannot coexist with what analysts call a hardline Iranian regime capable of extorting the region by closing the Strait of Hormuz at a moment’s notice.
Gargash told the Council on Foreign Relations this week that the UAE could join a US-led operation to wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz back from Iran, a significant statement for a country that had spent years cultivating a posture of careful neutrality between Washington and Tehran.
The UAE spent decades building Dubai’s global reputation as an oasis of stability, and that reputation underpins its economic model, with over three-quarters of its GDP coming from non-oil sectors.
The economic toll of the conflict has been severe across the region. Oil prices have surged past $114 per barrel, the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic, and Qatar’s energy minister warned that prolonged hostilities could force Gulf producers to halt exports entirely.
UAE oil production has dropped by between 500,000 and 800,000 barrels per day.
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