Senior UAE official says Iranian attacks will drive Gulf countries into Israeli arms

Emirati presidential adviser Anwar Gargash says ‘more channels will open’ between Israel and Arab countries it doesn’t have ties with, in the wake of incessant Iranian strikes

A top adviser to the United Arab Emirates’ president said on Tuesday that Iran’s attacks on Gulf states are pushing them closer to Israel and to the US.

“Iran’s full-throttle attack on the Gulf states will actually strengthen the Israeli role in the Gulf, will not diminish it,” Anwar Gargash said during a Council on Foreign Relations event.

“For countries that have relations with Israel, this is — you know, this relationship, in my opinion, will be even more strengthened,” he continued. “For countries that don’t have, I expect… that more channels will be open.”

Israel normalized relations with the UAE and Bahrain, another Gulf country, in 2020.

Since the US and Israel opened their aerial campaign against Iran on February 28, Tehran has attacked airports, ports, oil facilities and commercial hubs in the six Gulf states with missiles and drones while also attacking Israel and disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — the artery carrying about a fifth of global oil and underpinning Gulf economies.

The attacks have reinforced Gulf fears that leaving Iran with any significant offensive weaponry or arms manufacturing capacity could embolden it to hold the region’s energy lifeline hostage whenever tensions rise.

However, they have not joined any attacks themselves, as Gulf leaders remain deeply fearful of triggering a broader, uncontrollable conflagration.

Gargash said at Tuesday’s online event that his country could join an international effort led by the US to ensure the safety and security of the Strait of Hormuz.

The next day saw a major Israeli strike on the largest gas field in the world.

The South Pars/North Dome mega-field supplies around 70 percent of Iran’s domestic natural gas. Iran, which shares the massive field with energy giant Qatar, has been developing its side since the late 1990s.

Iran’s state television said that in response to the strike, the Islamic Republic will be attacking oil and gas infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran specifically threatened Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and its Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the UAE’s Al Hasan Gas Field, and the petrochemical plants and a refinery in Qatar.

The UAE has faced more Iranian attacks than any other country. Since the start of the war, the UAE has intercepted 327 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,699 drones, according to the Gulf state’s defense ministry. Two UAE soldiers have died in the war, as have six civilians, with another 158 wounded.

“We’re not seeing 2,000 Israeli missiles and drones targeting us,” said Gargash. “We’re seeing 2,000 Iranian missiles and drones targeting us.”

Predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran has often viewed its Sunni Arab Gulf neighbors — close allies of the US that host American military bases — with deep suspicion, even if relations with Qatar and Oman have generally been less fraught.

“I think for countries that are seeking to buttress also their defense, their technology, I think it will be more linked,” said Gargash. “And I think this is also the folly of this Iranian strategy, an Iranian strategy that will actually make the Gulf — make Israel less of a threat and Iran more of a threat.”

He said that the Gulf countries will also double down on their ties with the US.

“In this war we are seeing how important that American connection is,” said Gargash, “although that American connection — we might criticize it over a certain defense system or over a certain of lack of response… overall I think the Iranian folly of targeting the region is not in any way diminishing the America[n] role. I think it’s strengthening the America[n] roles.”

Over the years, Iran and its regional allies have been accused of attacks on Gulf energy installations, not least a 2019 strike on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities — for which Iran denied responsibility — that halved Saudi output and rattled energy markets.

The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE — have held just one Zoom call, and no Arab summit has been convened to discuss coordinated action.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Gulf partners were “stepping up even more” and were willing to “go on the offense” while already working with Washington on collective and integrated air defenses, though he did not specify what else they might do.

A senior UAE official said his country had chosen restraint, after Iran said the US military had used the UAE to strike Kharg Island, home to Iran’s main oil export terminal.

Reuters contributed to this report.