ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday expressed “regret” over the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) “active role” in the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, saying that Abu Dhabi expected Tehran to remain “passive” and “stay silent” while being attacked with “UAE’s backing.”
Abu Dhabi placed its “military bases, airspace, territory, and facilities at the disposal of the US and Israeli regime, providing all kinds of intelligence and other support” to strike the “Iranian people” as well as allowing “its territory to fire artillery and equipment” against Iran, Arahchi said.
Aragchi’s remarks came at the meeting of the member states of BRICS – an intergovernmental organization comprising 11 states, including the UAE – in New Delhi, India, as cited by Iranian state media.
The Iranian foreign minister “strongly advised the UAE to reconsider its policy toward Iran,” adding that they have “not attacked the UAE itself” but “American military bases and installations” in the country, parallel to “its right to self-defense.”
He further made reference to the alleged visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Abu Dhabi, claiming that the visit served as evidence that Emirates “had taken part in the strikes” and “perhaps even acted directly against Iran.”
On Wednesday, Netenyahu’s office said during the nearly 40-day-long war with Iran, the Israeli premier visited the Emirates and met with President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed.
“This visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE,” their statement added.
But the UAE labeled the claim as “entirely unfounded,” saying that its relations with Israel are “public and conducted within the well-known and officially declared Abraham Accords, and are not based on non-transparent or unofficial arrangements.”
UAE has been a primary target for attacks from Iran and its allied armed groups in the region during the war. Over 2,800 drones and missiles hit the country before the war was tenuously ended through a Pakistani-brokered ceasefire between Washington and Tehran on April 8.
However, attacks on Abu Dhabi resumed after the fragile truce, with over two dozens of projectiles launched against the country.