The United Arab Emirates’ presidential advisor, Anwar Gargash, refuted Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi’s accusations that the US used the UAE territory to attack Tehran’s Kharg Island, calling it “a part of a confused policy that has misdirected its aim, lost its compass, and forsaken wisdom.”
Gargash said in a post on X that the UAE has the right to defend itself against Iran’s ongoing strikes, but chooses to exercise restraint.
“Following the brutal Iranian attack on the UAE, Mr Abbas Araghchi emerges to accuse the UAE of aggression against Iran, as part of a confused policy that has misdirected its aim, lost its compass, and forsaken wisdom. The UAE has the right to self-defence in the face of this terrorist aggression imposed upon it, yet it continues to prioritise reason and logic, maintaining restraint and seeking an exit for Iran and the region,” he wrote.
Gargash said that Araghchi has “condemned his own country, entrenched its isolation, and exposed its aggression” through his statement. According to him, the Iranian foreign minister’s statement came while knowing that the “UAE exerted sincere efforts until the very last moment to mediate between Washington and Tehran to avert this war.”
Iran’s claims on the UAE
Iran issued an evacuation warning for three major ports in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, including the busiest in the Middle East, openly threatening a neighbouring country’s non-US assets for the first time as its war with the US and Israel entered its third week.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told MS NOW that the US attacked Kharg Island and Abu Musa Island with low-range artillery from two locations in the UAE, Ras Al-Khaimah and a place “very close to Dubai,” calling that dangerous and saying Iran “will try to be careful not to attack any populated area” there.
Hours after the threat, there was no sign of an attack on Dubai’s Jebel Ali port – the Mideast’s busiest – or the Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi. But images published by the Associated Press showed a fire at the third port, in Fujairah, caused by debris from an intercepted Iranian drone hitting an oil facility.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbours during the war, but it said it was targeting US assets, even as hits or attempts were reported on civilian ones such as airports and oil fields.