The United Arab Emirates carried out dozens of airstrikes against Iran beginning in the early days of the war and continuing through the day after the April cease-fire was announced, people familiar with the matter said, a deeper involvement than was previously known in the air campaign led by the U.S. and Israel.
The extent of the strikes is further evidence of the country’s growing willingness to protect what it sees as its strategic interests, setting it apart from some of its neighbors in the Gulf region, which have taken a far more cautious approach to the threat from Iran.
The attacks were conducted in coordination with the U.S. and Israel, both of which provided intelligence, the people said. They included targets on Qeshm and Abu Musa islands in the Strait of Hormuz; Bandar Abbas; the oil refinery on Lavan island in the Persian Gulf ; and the Asaluyeh petrochemical complex, some of the people said.
Some of those strikes targeted Iranian energy facilities in response to Tehran’s attacks on U.A.E. oil and gas infrastructure, some of the people said. The Asaluyeh strike, carried out with Israel, garnered significant international backlash and led the U.S. to ask Israel to stop striking energy facilities.
Gulf countries said ahead of the war they wouldn’t let their airspace or bases be used for attacks. But some shifted course after the war began and Iran responded by launching missile and drone attacks against Gulf population centers, energy infrastructure and airports in an effort to raise the economic and political costs of the conflict.
The U.A.E. suffered the brunt of those attacks, as Iran targeted it with more than 2,800 missiles and drones, far more than it fired at any other country including Israel.
The scale of the U.A.E.’s hawkish response exacerbated divisions within the Gulf. In early April, Saudi Arabia complained to the U.S. that U.A.E. attacks were raising the risk that regional energy facilities could come under fire from Iran, something that could spike oil prices and rock global markets, some of the people said. The Saudis wanted the U.S. to pressure the U.A.E. to stop the retaliatory attacks and join diplomatic efforts by regional countries, they said.
“The U.A.E. holds Iran fully responsible for these terrorist attacks and their repercussions,” the Gulf state’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Saudi Arabia and the Israeli prime minister’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment. The White House declined to comment.
Saudi Arabia, which has faced fewer and less damaging strikes from Iran, has publicly condemned the attacks on the Gulf, but has taken a less confrontational approach and has worked to resolve the conflict through diplomacy.
U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed grew frustrated with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier in the war after he refused to participate in coordinated military actions against Iran, Gulf officials have said.
Those frustrations worsened a growing divide between the two Gulf powers, which were already vying for influence over the Red Sea on opposite sides of conflicts in Sudan and Yemen. The U.A.E. pulled out of OPEC in April, leaving the Saudi-led group and pledging to double down on security ties with the U.S. and Israel.
In addition to the strikes, the U.A.E. backed drafts of a resolution at the United Nations that authorized the use of force if necessary to break Iran’s chokehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway.
The U.A.E. also acted against Iran’s financial interests , closing schools and clubs in Dubai that were linked to Tehran and denying visas and transit rights to Iranian citizens. The moves crimped the economic lifeline the Emirates have long provided to Iran amid heavy sanctions by the West.
Iran has responded by repeatedly accusing the U.A.E. of joining the U.S. and Israeli campaign.
The Emirates has long had a high appetite for foreign policy risk and a willingness to use military power to advance its interests in the region. In recent years it has sent weapons to militias in Sudan and Libya and mercenaries to Yemen in a series of operations designed to outflank regional rivals.
It isn’t clear yet whether the country has the capacity to deter a much bigger, closer enemy like Iran. Its attacks were largely symbolic compared with the more than 20,000 strikes carried out by the U.S. and Israel.
The U.A.E.’s aggressive stance risks making it a bigger target in what could be an extended period of contentious relations with Iran. Earlier in May, Iran attacked an important U.A.E. oil port in the emirate of Fujairah after the U.S. Navy launched an operation to break Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz. More recently, a drone fired from Iraq, home to powerful pro-Iran militias that have been active in the war, hit near U.A.E.’s nuclear power plant.
The U.A.E. has recently adopted a more accommodating posture, pushing for diplomatic solutions to a conflict that has put its vast energy facilities at risk, some of the people said. The Emirati president was among regional leaders who encouraged President Trump to make a peace deal with Iran on a call earlier in May.
The war has deepened the alliance between the U.A.E. and Israel. Israeli officials were encouraged by the U.A.E.’s behavior during the war and see the relationship between the two countries as a long-term strategic partnership.
Israel sent Iron Dome batteries and Israeli troops to defend the U.A.E. during the war, with many dozens of troops still stationed in a military complex in the Gulf nation, one of the people familiar with the matter said. A stream of top Israeli officials—including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the Mossad spy agency, the head of the Shin Bet, and the Israeli chief of staff— secretly visited the U.A.E. during the war to coordinate on Iran.
