UAE Is Said to Have Hit Iran Earlier in War as Israel Ties Grow
(Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates retaliated against Iranian attacks on its territory earlier in the war in the Middle East, according to people familiar with the matter, coordinating with Israel as the two countries deepen security ties.
The UAE attacked Iran more than once, both before and after the April 8 ceasefire between the US, Israel and Tehran, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. One of those was an Israeli-coordinated response to an Iranian strike on the UAE’s Borouge petrochemicals facility last month, according to the people.
News that the UAE has carried out military strikes on Iran was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The UAE’s participation as an attacker in the war — during which it was targeted by Iran more than any other country in the region — comes as the oil-rich Gulf state deepens its security relationship with Israel. That’s included intelligence sharing, the early detection and interception of Iranian attacks, and cooperation in selecting Iranian targets, the people said.
After Iran criticized the UAE’s ties to Israel and the US last week, Abu Dhabi said in a statement that its “international relations and defense partnerships are an exclusively sovereign matter, and that no party has the right to use them as a pretext for threats, interference, or incitement.”
“The UAE reserves its full sovereign, legal, diplomatic, and military rights to address any threat, allegation, or hostile act,” it added.
The UAE is one of only a few Arab countries to formally recognize Israel, having signed the Abraham Accords in 2020. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed held a rare phone call last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who expressed solidarity after Iranian attacks on the UAE.
On Tuesday, Washington’s Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said Israel had sent Iron Dome missile defense batteries to the UAE during the war, along with personnel to operate them.
The two countries coordinated on a May 6 Israeli attack on Iran’s biggest petrochemical facility in Asaluyeh, in response to Tehran’s attack on the UAE’s Borouge plant, one of the people said. The UAE retaliatory attacks also included one on an Iranian refinery on Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, the person said.
Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to MBZ, as the UAE’s president is known, has criticized the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council — which also includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait — for not doing more to stand up to Iran after it fired thousands of drones and missiles across the region.
In a statement last week, Iran slammed the UAE for cooperating with Israel and the US, and said its actions “violate the principles of good neighborliness.”
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