During the war, Iran launched a series of missiles and drones on the UAE. On 10 May the UAE’s Ministry of Defence said that air defence systems had engaged two drones launched from Iran and that the country had engaged a total of 551 ballistic missiles, 29 cruise missiles, and 2,265 since the war broke out in late February, when the US and Israel attacked Iran.
On Monday the Wall Street Journal reported that the UAE had also carried out strikes on Iran, which it had not yet publicly acknowledged, including an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in early April.
Earlier on Wednesday Emirati presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said the UAE remained committed to diplomacy but had a right to defend itself.
In his post, Gargash said that the UAE had not sought the war and had worked to avoid it, saying that “Arab-Iranian relations in the Gulf cannot be built on confrontations and conflicts”.
A ceasefire has been in place between the US and Iran for about a month.
However Iran has continued to block the Strait of Hormuz in response to US-Israel strikes, prompting a rise in world oil prices. Normally about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the strait. The US for its part has been enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports to exert pressure on Tehran to agree to its terms.
On Sunday Iran laid out its demands to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in a counter-offer sent to the US. Trump rejected the proposal, calling it “totally unacceptable” and a “piece of garbage” and subsequently said the ceasefire was “on massive life support”.
Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf responded on X that Iran’s armed forces were “ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression”.