US report reveals secret military coordination between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv to strike Iran
The Wall Street Journal revealed in a wide-ranging intelligence report that the United Arab Emirates carried out dozens of airstrikes against vital targets inside Iranian territory during the current war period.
The newspaper indicated in a report today that these operations were carried out in direct reliance on accurate intelligence provided by the United States of America and Israel, and came as a decisive response to previous Iranian attacks that targeted oil and gas facilities inside the Gulf state.
Geography of airstrikes and targeted installations
According to the US report, the Emirati air operations focused mainly on the destruction of energy sites and critical infrastructure deep inside the Iranian coasts and islands, where the strikes affected strategic facilities on the islands of Qeshm and Abu Musa located in the Strait of Hormuz, in addition to bombing military targets in the city of Bandar Abbas, and a major oil refinery on the island of Lavan in the Gulf.
The operations witnessed a qualitative escalation in the targeting of the "Assaluyeh" petrochemical complex linked to the strategic "South Pars" gas field, a strike that was carried out in the context of direct cooperation with Israel, and was followed by a wave of broad international condemnation, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coming out to announce that Tel Aviv acted unilaterally in that complex, amid reports that US President Donald Trump called for an end to the targeting of Iranian energy facilities for fear of worsening the global economic situation.
Iron Dome reinforcements and high security coordination
The levels of security and military coordination on the ground between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv grew unprecedentedly during the war, as the report reported that Israel sent batteries from the Iron Dome defense system accompanied by military elements into the UAE to strengthen the air defense network after Iran launched more than 2,800 missiles and drones towards the UAE, the largest volume of attacks that have exceeded that of any other country in the region, including Israel.
These developments on the ground coincided with high-level secret and public visits by senior Israeli security officials to Abu Dhabi, including Mossad Director David Barnea, Shin Bet Director David Zinni, and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to stabilize joint operations rooms and exchange intelligence on Iran's target bank.
Gulf Rift and Saudi Rejection of Escalation
These unilateral Emirati military moves have sparked sharp tension within the corridors of the Gulf Cooperation Council, with Saudi Arabia expressing its strong opposition to this approach, warning that these strikes will expand the circle of Iran's violent response and endanger the security of the entire region, while diplomatic sources described the Saudi position as seeing the Emirati move as a unilateral and uncoordinated move with the rest of the Gulf capitals.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan expressed his deep displeasure with the positions of Riyadh and Doha, considering that the refusal of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to participate in any coordinated military response to Iranian attacks represents a preference for a policy of "dissociation" and an abandonment of common security solidarity in the face of direct threats.
The silent rivalry and divergence in political visions between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi has begun to surface since Saudi Arabia announced its new strategy based on de-escalation and zeroing regional crises with the aim of protecting its giant economic projects (Vision 2030), which made it categorically refuse to enter into any direct military alliance against Tehran, in contrast to the Emirati push, which favored a strategy of "rough deterrence" and a war of mutual strikes to protect its vital oil facilities.