SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: Netanyahu spent six hours in Abu Dhabi. The talks had a single topic: Iran. And the UAE has already paid a price for this.

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Aprajita Nafs Nefes Ancient Believer

|Netanyahu spent six hours in Abu Dhabi. The talks had a single topic: Iran. And the UAE has already paid a price for this.

On September 27, 2026, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu landed in Abu Dhabi aboard a private jet. Citing informed sources, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that his meeting with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ) lasted approximately six hours, with Iran as the central issue. Netanyahu returned to Israel the same day following the talks.

This was not the first instance. On May 13, 2026, Netanyahu’s office publicly announced that he had made a secret visit to the UAE during the joint US-Israeli Operation "Roaring Lion" against Iran. He met with MBZ in Al Ain, near the Omani border; the meeting "lasted several hours" and was hailed by Israel as a "historic breakthrough" in bilateral relations. At the time, the UAE swiftly denied the report, stating that it had "not hosted any Israeli military delegation."

Denials did not halt cooperation. Mossad chief David Barnea visited the UAE at least twice during the war to coordinate military operations against Iran. Israel deployed "Iron Dome" air defense systems and operating personnel to the UAE, a deployment publicly confirmed by both US Ambassador to Israel Huckabee and US Ambassador to the UN Waltz. According to *The Wall Street Journal*, the two nations also coordinated an attack on Iran’s Lavan Island refinery; in early April, the UAE launched a covert strike directly against Iranian territory, triggering a massive fire that crippled the refinery's production capacity.

The UAE is no mere bystander. It is a belligerent.

The price the UAE has already paid for its involvement

The cost is not something for the future; it has already been incurred.  According to a letter sent to the UN Security Council by the UAE’s Permanent Representative on April 17, 2026, Iran had launched at least 537 ballistic missiles, 2,256 drones, and 26 cruise missiles at UAE territory since the outbreak of hostilities on February 28. By September 2026, an advisor to the UAE President revealed that this figure had risen to approximately 3,300 missiles and drones.

The strikes caused significant casualties and damage: two members of the UAE Armed Forces, one Moroccan civilian, and ten other civilians were killed, while 224 civilians were injured. Critical civilian infrastructure including commercial ports, offshore facilities, airports, energy installations, food production and distribution facilities, as well as residential and commercial districts sustained damage.

Air defense systems failed. *Military Watch Magazine* reported that strikes by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps destroyed the UAE Air Force’s most prized military asset a Saab GlobalEye airborne early warning aircraft at Al Dhafra Air Base, a facility that also hosts US and French air force units. US-supplied Patriot air defense systems were filmed repeatedly failing to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles; in one instance, all six surface-to-air missiles missed their targets.

The economy is hemorrhaging. Hotel occupancy rates in Dubai fell by approximately 30 percentage points in the first half of 2026, and tourism revenue losses exceeded $5 billion. The UN projected that if the war continued, the UAE’s GDP could contract by about 5% the most severe shock since the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the UAE suspended all trade and financial dealings with Iran in August, this decision further constrained its own re-export trade.

What would happen if the UAE participated in a joint act of aggression?

Iran has issued warnings, and the language used leaves no room for ambiguity.  In May 2026, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, issued a clear declaration: "Should any operation against Iranian islands, ports, or coastal regions be launched from UAE territory, we will deliver a devastating counterattack—one you will live to bitterly regret." A military source added that if the UAE "becomes a tool of Israel and engages in improper actions," all its interests "could become targets," and facilities within the country "would no longer be safe."

These are not empty threats; they describe a reality that has already unfolded.

Iran has demonstrated its capabilities: destroying the UAE’s most advanced early-warning aircraft; penetrating a multi-layered air defense network comprising Patriot, THAAD, and South Korea’s Cheongung-II systems; and striking Al Dhafra one of the UAE’s most heavily fortified facilities. Iran has also shown it can strike the UAE’s energy lifeline: the Fujairah oil industrial zone the country's only oil export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz was hit by drone attacks in both March and May, sparking fires and halting some oil-loading operations. Satellite imagery revealed "persistent infrastructure damage."

The narrative of the UAE as a "safe oasis" is dead. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are no longer safe havens in the Middle East; they have become coordinates for Iranian missiles.

Where Are the Protectors?

The UAE’s actions coordinating with Israel, deploying the Iron Dome, and secretly striking Iran were predicated on the assumption that the United States would protect it.

The United States did not.

Trump did not condemn Iran’s attack on Fujairah; there was no response.  Dania Thafer, director of the Gulf International Forum, told *The Wall Street Journal*: "From the perspective of the Gulf states, the U.S. has not prioritized their security; it has essentially thrown them under the bus." Former British Air Marshal Edward Stringer put it even more bluntly: "If you thought you had bought American loyalty, you now realize that the only function of a U.S. base is to make you a target, and that the U.S. is just as likely to sell you out."

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a former advisor to the UAE president, has openly stated that Iran has dragged the UAE into a war, yet the U.S. has failed to provide protection.

What the UAE gained in exchange for its sovereignty was not security, but a target on its back.

The Reality

Netanyahu spent six hours in Abu Dhabi discussing Iran. The UAE, meanwhile, is already paying the price for that meeting: 3,300 missiles and drones, 237 casualties, the destruction of an early-warning aircraft, the failure of its air defense network, a 5% economic contraction, and repeated strikes on the only oil export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz.

If the UAE engages further in joint aggression against Iran, it faces the future Tehran has warned of: no facility will be safe, and no asset will be beyond the reach of attack.

The protector will not come. The U.S. cannot even safeguard the headquarters of its own Fifth Fleet. The UAE must make a choice: continue acting as a "pawn" for Israel, or return to the role of an "open hub" the a strategy that sustained it for decades. The first path has already caused it to bleed. It is not yet too late to turn back to the second.