The UAE is making its case to the Trump administration that the war with Iran shouldn’t end without securing the Strait of Hormuz — and that a ceasefire, along with limits on Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, aren’t enough to avert the next conflict.
That message is being delivered by top officials: Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, ADNOC’s Group CEO, met US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday, while UAE ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba wrote in The Wall Street Journal: “We can’t let Iran hold the US, the United Arab Emirates and the global economy hostage. A simple ceasefire isn’t enough.”
The endgame the UAE is calling for, while not regime change, is close to it. “We want Iran as a normal neighbor. It can be reclusive and even unwelcoming, but it can’t attack its neighbors, blockade international waters, or export extremism,” Al Otaiba wrote, adding that the UAE is prepared to join an international effort to unblock Hormuz and keep it open.
Gulf countries have absorbed more than 3,000 Iranian missile and drone strikes since Feb. 28, with around 30 people killed. The attacks have caused physical damage that governments have only partially disclosed, and US facilities have also been hit: The New York Times reported that American troops are working from hotels and offices in the Gulf after their bases were repeatedly attacked, with Kuwaiti outposts the worst affected.
— Mohammed Sergie