UAE says rebuilding trust with Iran may take decades

🔸A senior official of the United Arab Emirates says that restoring relations with Iran is necessary, but rebuilding trust in Tehran “may take decades.”

🔸Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said on Monday, 16 Shahrivar, at the Heily Assembly in Abu Dhabi: “Our dialogue with Iran must be ambitious. This dialogue must go beyond transactional matters and address the bigger strategic questions facing the Persian Gulf: security, non-interference, freedom of navigation, economic cooperation, and ultimately the rebuilding of trust.”

🔸The senior UAE official, while elaborating further on his views, said: “Geography leaves no alternative to engagement for us, but we must clearly distinguish between rebuilding a necessary and practical relationship with Iran and rebuilding the trust that has been broken.”

🔸Gargash said in this regard that although relations with Iran can and should be restored, rebuilding trust with Iran after the recent attacks may take decades.

🔸During the recent war between the United States and Israel with Iran, the UAE was targeted by Iran with the highest number of missile and drone attacks. The country, which had previously been considered one of Iran’s most important commercial trading partners, after the recent attacks on its oil tankers cut all financial and commercial ties with Iran.

🔸Located directly across the Persian Gulf and near the Strait of Hormuz opposite Iran, during the first weeks of the war the country was targeted by the bulk of Tehran’s attacks; to the extent that they targeted 3,300 missiles and drones of this country.

🔸The adviser to the UAE president also criticized the Gulf Arab countries for the type of response they had to Iran’s attacks, and said that their collective action in response to these attacks had been insufficient.

🔸He said: “For years, we generally agreed on the nature of the challenge that Iran had created. So the problem was not a lack of understanding. Where we fell short in facing this historic challenge, turning that shared understanding into an adequate unified and strategic response was enough.”

🔸In his remarks, the UAE official also announced that the country is building alternative routes for its energy exports and trade to ensure that, in the war with Iran, they will not be “taken hostage.”

🔸Read the full report on the Radio Farda website.