United Arab Emirates says military solutions offer no quick offramps to crisis with Iran

MANAMA, Bahrain — The United Arab Emirates’ presidential advisor said Sunday that his country hopes a diplomatic breakthrough in Qatar-led mediations is possible to avert a new round of confrontation between the U.S. and Iran.

The Iran war, which began Feb. 28 with joint strikes by the U.S. and Israel followed by retaliatory attacks by Iran on Persian Gulf nations, has made it “a watershed year” for the region and the world, UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash said at a security forum in Bahrain.

“We don’t really want to see another round of confrontation in the region,” Gargash told the audience at the Manama Dialogue, an annual security summit in Bahrain organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which brings together regional and international state, defense and foreign affairs officials and experts.

Iranian negotiators are in Qatar for talks on a proposal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz soon, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. He said that no direct talks are being held with the U.S. and that the final outcome depends on answers provided by the United States to the “Iranian questions.”

In an interview shared on his Telegram channel, Araghchi said that Iran hoped that the U.S. would choose “diplomacy over other paths.” He said Iran was ready for both defense and diplomacy, depending on Washington’s “rationality.”

A possible escalation cast a long shadow over the three-day security forum in Bahrain’s capital, Manama.

Gargash, the UAE advisor, said that the current crisis requires “a lot of wisdom, with political tools being our main tools, and the understanding that military solutions will only complicate the current very complicated scene that we have and will not actually bring any quick offramps.”

Gargash, however, acknowledged that “the rules of logic” show that the U.S. and Iranian stances are far apart.

“If these positions are not bridged, then we have to worry about the worst,” Gargash said.

He said that it’s not in the interest of the region or Iran to withstand another round of war. The U.S. and Israel have both threatened renewed strikes on Iran, and Tehran has vowed a broad retaliation in response.

But Gargash added that his country and the region are braced for the possibility of escalation.

Before a ceasefire was reached in April, the UAE faced the largest number of airborne attacks from Iran, with more than 3,000 drone and ballistic missile attacks targeting airports, military and oil facilities, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Most of those attacks were intercepted.

Since then, gulf nations have spent billions of dollars to boost their defense capabilities.

Gargash said the war has solidified U.S.-UAE relations, making them “even more important” and at the heart of the UAE’s ability to defend itself.

At the conference, Bahraini Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said that his country also welcomes “every effort to reduce tensions, prevent escalation and create opportunities for dialogue.”

Al Zayani said that Iran has shown what he called a pattern of attacks or threat of attacks threatening the region’s and the world’s stability and prosperity by targeting sea, air and data facilities.

He said that Iran has continued to do so even after a ceasefire was reached and as recently as last month, threatening underwater data cables. He described the attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on neighboring Saudi Arabia as part of the pattern.

“These attacks are part of one continued pattern,” he said. “The hands may change, the approach doesn’t.”

Iran fired 500 drones and nearly 200 ballistic missiles toward Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, at the height of the war, according to the international institute. The attacks hit the naval base, residential buildings, the financial district and a water desalination plant.

This summer, Houthi rebels have escalated their attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and airports, saying they were a response to Saudi airstrikes on the airport in Sanaa, the Houthi-held Yemeni capital. The Houthis have hit critical oil pipelines and disrupted air traffic in Saudi Arabia.

El Deeb writes for the Associated Press.