The United Arab Emirates announced an indefinite trade embargo on Iran on Wednesday, accusing Iranian forces of firing two ballistic missiles at its territory. Iran denied launching missiles and described the reported attack as a “false flag operation” by Israel and the United States. The UAE’s embargo has been described as highly significant by analysts, who say Iran is heavily reliant on its neighbour for critical imports and access to financial markets.
The recent developments come shortly after the June 17 memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran lapsed on Monday, with little prospect of being renewed. Here is more about the UAE announcement and how its embargo could affect Iran. In a statement, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “All trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice.” The decision was made in “light of escalations that undermine peace and security in the region”, it added.
The statement came soon after the UAE’s Ministry of Defence reported that its air defences had detected two ballistic missiles it claimed were launched from Iran, with one falling in the country’s territorial waters and the other outside. In a follow-up statement, the ministry said the missiles were “targeting maritime traffic” and promised to “resolutely confront any attempt to undermine the security of the nation or maritime navigation in the region”. However, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the accusation as “baseless”, with spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei suggesting it was a “false flag operation” amid the US-Israel war on Iran.
In the first six weeks of the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran that killed then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, Iran hit back with drone and missile strikes on US military assets as well as energy and other infrastructure in several neighbouring Gulf countries. It struck the UAE more than any other country, however. In all, Iran launched more than 530 ballistic missiles, 26 cruise missiles and more than 2,200 drones towards targets in the UAE, which it has described as US assets in the country.
However, the UAE says civilian sites have also been hit either by missiles or by debris from missiles intercepted by US-supplied THAAD and Patriot missile defence systems. On March 1, the day after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, Dubai’s port of Jebel Ali, the largest constructed deep-water harbour in the world, was struck. A day later, a fire broke out at Musaffah fuel terminal in southwest Abu Dhabi when it was struck by a drone.
Then, falling debris from a drone interception caused a fire at the Fujairah oil terminal along the eastern coast of the UAE. No injuries were reported. On March 17, oil loading at the port of Fujairah was partly halted after an Iranian drone attack caused a fire at the export terminal, while operations at the Shah gasfield remained suspended after an earlier attack, officials said.
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