UAE halts all trade, financial dealings with Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates has said it is suspending all trade and financial dealings with Iran after reporting an Iranian missile attack directed at its ships.

The announcement comes after a period of relative calm in the UAE, with no Iranian missiles aimed at the country since May after it bore the brunt of attacks in the early weeks of the Middle East war.

Abu Dhabi has however accused Tehran of repeatedly targeting its tankers at sea in recent weeks.

“In light of regional escalations… all trade, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice,” said UAE foreign ministry communications director Afra Al Hameli.

The UAE is home to a sizeable Iranian community and has been a major trading partner for US-sanctioned Iran, at least before the war.

They share deep cultural and historical ties as neighbouring countries across the Gulf, with centuries-old links between coastal communities, trade routes and family networks.

Tuesday’s announcement is the latest measure against Iran by the UAE after it recalled its ambassador early in the conflict and shut Iran-linked schools and a hospital.

At the height of the war in March, authorities ordered the closure of an Iranian state-linked hospital in Dubai, three employees at the facility told AFP, with schools and a community centre also ordered closed.

A UAE official told AFP at the time that “certain institutions directly linked to the Iranian regime and IRGC will be closed under targeted measures” after they were found to have violated UAE laws.

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Abu Dhabi on Tuesday accused Iran of firing two ballistic missiles towards the country, the first such attack since May.

It later said the salvo was directed at shipping, but Tehran denied firing missiles at the UAE.

“UAE air defences detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards the country, with the first falling outside the country’s territorial waters, while the second fell within the territorial waters,” the UAE ministry said in a statement posted to social media.

A second statement released later said the missiles “were targeting maritime navigation and fell into the sea”.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei “categorically rejected the United Arab Emirates’ claim that Iran had launched a missile towards that country”, calling it harmful to regional trust and security efforts.

The first UAE statement came nearly two hours after a phone alert that warned residents of a “potential missile threat”.

It was the first such alert since a false alarm in June and an alert in July for an attack that ultimately did not enter UAE territory.

Before that, the last missile warning came in early May.

However, tankers belonging to the UAE’s state-owned oil company ADNOC have been repeatedly targeted in the past few weeks.

When the Middle East war began on February 28, the UAE bore the brunt of Iran’s attacks, with nearly 3,000 missiles and drones directed at the country — more than anywhere else in the region.

After a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States came into effect in June, which has since collapsed, the UAE reported no attacks, unlike other Gulf states.