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Trump’s officials tell UAE to seize crucial Iranian island
US wants Gulf nation to increase role in war after realigning its alliances in region
Trump administration officials are encouraging the United Arab Emirates to get more heavily involved in the Iran war and seize one of Tehran’s Gulf islands, The Telegraph understands.
Some in Donald Trump’s circle have suggested the UAE should take Lavan Island, which was reportedly bombed in secret military strikes by the Emiratis in early April, a former senior Trump security official told The Telegraph.
“Go take ’em!” the official said. “It would be UAE boots on the ground instead of US.”
The encouragement comes amid disclosures about the UAE’s increasing engagement in the 11-week conflict and its growing ties with Israel.
Analysts say that the war and Iran’s heavy bombardment of the Gulf state are accelerating a dramatic realignment across the Middle East into rival geopolitical axes.
The Emirates have borne the brunt of Tehran’s retaliation since Israel and America began striking Iran in late February.
Facing an onslaught of more than 2,800 missiles and drones has provided a watershed “September 11 moment” for the UAE, forcing the kingdom to reassess its defences and ponder its alliances and place in the world.
The result has been the UAE doubling down on relations with America and Israel, while facing strained ties with its neighbouring nations, including Saudi Arabia. Instead of bringing the Saudis and Emiratis closer together, the war has deepened the divide.
Earlier in May the UAE also decided to quit OPEC, the Saudi-dominated group of major oil producers.
“The longer this is going on, the more time they’ve had to reflect about their place in the world, their place in the Gulf – who’s a friend and who’s not,” Barbara Leaf, a former US ambassador to the UAE, told the New York Times.
“They are looking at things in pretty stark, black and white terms, of friend or foe.”
The UAE’s president had unsuccessfully asked the Saudis and Qataris to join counter-attacks against Iran at the start of the war, according to reports.
Then, in early April, the UAE struck several Iranian targets including Lavan, separate reports said, which the country has not confirmed.
Saudi Arabia also launched “numerous” air strikes against Iran towards the end of March, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, UAE’s ties with Israel, which were normalised with the Abraham Accords in 2020, have flourished during the war, even as other Gulf countries have kept their distance.
It has emerged that Israel gave Iron Dome air defence batteries to the UAE to combat Iran’s bombardment, and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said he had made a secret visit to the country in March and talks produced a “significant breakthrough”. Abu Dhabi denied a visit had taken place.
Following the reports, Iran this week called the UAE “an active partner in this aggression, and there is no doubt about it”.
The UAE replied that it rejected “attempts to justify Iranian terrorist attacks”, but said it reserved “all its sovereign, legal, diplomatic and military rights to confront any threat, claim or hostile act”.
Dr Burcu Ozcelik, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, a defence and security think tank, said the war had “accelerated a US-Israel-UAE alignment”.
While some Gulf nations have expressed anger at America for starting a costly war they did not want, the UAE has strengthened ties.
Dr Ozcelik said Anwar Gargash, adviser to the UAE president and a staunch critic of Iran’s actions, had said in April that Tehran’s attacks were likely to “concretise” the United States’s role in the Gulf, “not reduce it”.
Mr Gargash also said that Israeli influence would “become more prominent in the Gulf, not less”.
Strong backing for the UAE from Israel and Washington contrasts with the Emirates’ Gulf neighbours who have shown too little solidarity, UAE officials say.
The UAE has bemoaned a weak response from regional organisations such as the Arab League and Gulf Co-operation Council.
Pakistan, which has repeatedly been bailed out by UAE money, has also been too conciliatory to Tehran, they argue.
Dr Ozcelik said the risk of the new alignment for the Emirates and deeper military co-operation with Israel would prompt other Arab states to regard them as complicit in Israel’s Gaza campaign.
For Israel, there was the risk of association with the UAE’s controversial regional interventions. It has been accused of backing the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan. The UAE denies backing the RSF.