The United Arab Emirates has accused Iran of attacking the country with a barrage of missiles and drones, setting an oil refinery ablaze in the eastern emirate of Fujairah and wounding three Indian nationals.
The attacks on Monday mark the first on the UAE since Iran and the United States agreed to a ceasefire on April 8.
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They came after US President Donald Trump launched a new effort to escort stranded tankers out the vital energy chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.
Iran’s unified military command warned commercial ships against taking up the US offer and said that American forces “will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz”.
The UAE’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences “engaged” 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran over the course of the day.
The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in the “strongest terms the renewed terrorist, unprovoked Iranian attacks, targeting civilian sites and facilities in the country”.
It said it will not tolerate any threat to the UAE’s security and sovereignty and warned that it reserves the “full and legitimate right to respond” to the attacks.
Iran has denied the UAE’s accusations.
State broadcaster IRIB quoted a well-informed military source as saying that Iran had “no pre‑planned programme to attack the mentioned oil facilities”. The source attributed the incident to “US military adventurism aimed at creating a passage for the illegal transit of ships through the restricted waterways of the Strait of Hormuz”.
The source added that “the US military must be held accountable for this”.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency later cited another unnamed source as warning that if the “UAE takes unwise action, all of its interests will become Iran’s target”.
‘Maritime piracy’
The attacks on the UAE began after Iranian media reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had prevented US warships from entering the Strait of Hormuz “with a firm and swift warning”. The Fars news agency subsequently cited two local sources as saying that two missiles hit a US frigate near the Iranian island of Jask.
The US military denied the claim, however.
Shortly afterwards, the UAE announced that Iran had launched two drones at a tanker affiliated with its Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) that was passing through the strait.
UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash condemned the attack on the Barakah oil tanker as an “maritime piracy”, while ADNOC said that no one was injured and the vessel was not loaded.
The missile and drone salvoes followed. The emirate of Fujairah said an Iranian drone sparked a “large fire” at the Fujairah Petroleum Industries Zone and that said three Indian citizens were moderately injured during the attack.
Natasha Turak, a journalist based in Dubai, said the attacks have caused a lot of dismay.
“We heard the first missile alert ringing out over our phones for the first time in nearly a month since that shaky ceasefire was established. And I would say people here are feeling a lot of dismay, anger, frustration, but they are not entirely surprised,” she told Al Jazeera.
That’s “primarily because the key drivers of this war and the main sticking points between the US and Iran have not yet been resolved,” she said.
Negotiations between Iran and the US have been deadlocked since the ceasefire started on April 8, with Tehran’s nuclear programme and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz remaining as key points of contention.
The ceasefire, reached via Pakistani mediation, was followed by direct talks in Islamabad on April 11, but no agreement was reached on a lasting peace.
Trump later extended the truce without setting a new deadline, following a request from Pakistan.
“Both sides have now ratcheted up the escalation, and the UAE, suddenly, is the first to feel that blowback from the uptick in escalation, just as it was when the conflict began,” Turak said. “This country has received the highest volume of Iranian attacks, and it seems like it’s all kicked off again.”
The UAE’s Ministry of Education, meanwhile, announced distance learning for all public and private schools nationwide through Friday, citing the need to ensure “the safety and wellbeing of the educational community”.
Global condemnation
The attacks drew swift condemnation from around the globe.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar denounced Iran over the attacks and expressed their full support for any measures the UAE takes to “preserve its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity”.
Kuwait denounced Iran’s “reprehensible aggression” while Bahrain said it considered the strikes “a dangerous escalation that threatens the security and stability of the region”.
Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi condemned the “brutal attack” in a phone conversation with his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to Jordan’s Petra news agency.
Canada, Germany and United Kingdom also condemned Iran over the attacks and urged Tehran to return to negotiations and avoid any further escalation.
European Union President Ursula von der Leyen said the strikes were “a clear violation of sovereignty and international law”.
“These attacks are unacceptable,” she said on social media, adding that “security in the [Gulf] region has direct consequences for Europe”.
