Iran’s foreign ministry issued an unusual warning on Wednesday to the “rulers of Abu Dhabi,” the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
It accused the tiny oil-rich state of conspiring with the United States and Israel against Iran, and threatened “dangerous consequences” unless the Emirates pulled away from those countries.
Instead, within hours, the Emirati state news agency reported that Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the country’s leader, had taken a phone call from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. He expressed solidarity with the Emirates after the Gulf nation reported a renewed Iranian missile and drone assault earlier in the week.
The Emirates has faced more Iranian drone and missile strikes than any other country since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28, including some as recently as Friday morning.
The call with Mr. Netanyahu was one of many signs that, in the face of Iran’s attacks, the Emirati government has doubled down on its alliances with Israel and the United States. That remains the case even as President Trump and other American officials have appeared to downplay the attacks this week on the Emirates in the midst of a cease-fire.
“There is a trust premium that Trump will do the right thing,” said Nadim Koteich, an Emirati-Lebanese commentator who is close to the Emirati government. “What suits his legacy and what suits the American interests suits us.”
The depth of Iran’s ire has come as a shock to many in the Emirates. While the country hosts a major American air base, it is not a party to the conflict and has longstanding cultural and economic ties to Iran, hosting hundreds of thousands of Iranians. Before the war, it was one of Iran’s largest trading partners.
As Iranian projectiles have battered Emirati energy facilities, airports and hotels — killing at least 10 civilians, all foreign nationals, and damaging the nation’s reputation as a safe haven — that shock has turned into fury. Some analysts said it was the most dangerous threat the country had faced since its founding.
“There is a growing awareness — both at the leadership and popular levels — that the intense Iranian focus on the U.A.E. has transformed this war into our Sept. 11 moment,” said Marwan Alblooshi, an Emirati researcher at the Emirates Policy Center in Abu Dhabi.
On Thursday night, Iranian officials accused the Emirates of launching strikes in the south of the country. When asked for comment, the Emirates did not confirm or deny its involvement and referred back to an official statement from Wednesday in which it condemned Iran.
The U.S. military later said it had “targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces.”
It is not clear why the Emirates is in Iran’s cross hairs more than its neighbors, given that American military personnel and bases are distributed across Gulf countries. Dubai is less than 100 miles from Iran’s shores, meaning that it can be hit with shorter-range munitions than other countries.
It is an “epicenter of globalization,” Mr. Koteich said — meaning that the economic impact of hitting the Emirates reverberates more widely than when Iran strikes other Gulf countries, such as Kuwait or Bahrain.
Iranian officials have also repeatedly criticized the Emirates over its close ties to Israel, which it first established in 2020.
That partnership has grown stronger during the war; the Israeli military deployed its Iron Dome missile-defense system in the Emirates, according to two people familiar with the move.
“These six weeks were like steroids for the relationship,” Mr. Koteich said. “They showed up when they had to show up.”
The war has led the government to reassess its relationships in the region.
Emirati officials and analysts have complained that Arab neighbors have shown insufficient sympathy and solidarity, and that Pakistan — which is mediating between the U.S. and Iran — has been too willing to accommodate Iran’s positions.
“The longer this is going on, the more time they’ve had to reflect about their place in the world, their place in the Gulf — who’s a friend and who’s not,” said Barbara A. Leaf, a former U.S. ambassador to the Emirates. “They are looking at things in pretty stark black-and-white terms, of friend or foe.”
The country’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, once a close partner, has been strained for months. Last month, the Emirati government announced that it was leaving OPEC, a group of oil-producing countries of which Saudi Arabia is the de facto leader..
Officials said they were doing so in order to unilaterally increase their oil production and meet the market’s long-term needs, but it was also a demonstration that the Emirates is increasingly going its own way.
Analysts said the conviction among Emirati officials is that they must stick closely to the United States.
“The U.S. has been there for us,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati political scientist.
Without U.S. systems such as Patriot missiles to shoot down Iranian projectiles, “we would not have been able to defend ourselves,” he said. “The relationship with the U.S. is an essential pillar for our stability.”
