How the Mideast war brought UAE, Israel closer together

After facing barrages of Iranian missiles that threatened its economic future, the UAE has moved closer to Israel, widening a split with ally-turned-rival Saudi Arabia and placing it in defiant opposition to Tehran.

This gamble granted the UAE, a tourism hub where 90 per cent of the population is foreign, access to Israeli air defence systems to help fend off more than 2,800 drones and missiles -- effectively placing protection above all else to preserve a model based on stability, analysts said.

But its closer cooperation with Israel risks further antagonising Iran, which the UAE views as its biggest threat, and puts Abu Dhabi at even greater odds with Saudi Arabia, which along with much of the Gulf has come to see Israel as the region's main rogue actor.

The UAE has doubled down on US and Israel ties even as it was hard-hit in a war triggered by the pair that it had long sought to avoid.

"The UAE is thinking about the future and sees Israel as the best security partner that can provide cover for its economic recovery," said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House.

Their bet appears to have paid off in terms of security and defence.

On Tuesday, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, confirmed the country had sent its Iron Dome air defence batteries and personnel to the UAE during the war.

The UAE became the first Gulf country, alongside Bahrain, to recognise Israel in 2020 under the US-mediated Abraham Accords.

Throughout the war, Emirati officials have lambasted unnamed Arab countries for showcasing hollow solidarity as attacks rained.

"There wasn't enough of a sense of urgency, while this is the most existential threat that we have dealt with since the inception of the country," said Nadim Koteich, a Lebanese-Emirati media executive and policy adviser close to the UAE government.

"But in this war, the Israelis have showed up for the UAE when they had to show up."

Emirati officials have sometimes touted Israeli cooperation as a model for the post-war Gulf.

Last month, UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said Israeli and American influence in the Gulf would only increase as a result of Iran's "strategy" in the region.

But so far Bahrain and the UAE are still the only Gulf states to have normalised ties with Israel -- a sensitive prospect for Arab countries.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he made a secret visit to the UAE during the war, a claim swiftly denied by Abu Dhabi.

While the Abraham Accords initially gave normalisation efforts momentum, the trend came to a grinding halt with the outbreak of the 2023 Gaza war, which sparked fury across the Arab world, with Netanyahu becoming its public face.

His move to publicise the UAE visit was a means of projecting "statesmanship in the run-up to the elections" in Israel, according to Andreas Krieg of King's College London.

"The Israelis are trying to oversell the relationship," Vakil told AFP, adding "this is more like a practical security and economic partnership".

The UAE will continue to diversify its partnerships, she added, and expand relations with European and Asian allies crucial to its defence and economy.

UAE-Israel ties have presented challenges for the Gulf state since the onset of the Middle East war.

Its status as a cosmopolitan finance hub, and a top American ally that hosts US military assets and has ties to Israel, have made it a prime target for Iran, analysts say.

Deepening Israeli ties have also highlighted UAE-Saudi disagreement over whether Israel or Iran poses the bigger threat to Gulf stability -- increasing the gap between the pair since their row in December over Yemen.

Abu Dhabi has signalled it is charting its own path even if it means shedding traditional alliances, exiting Saudi-dominated OPEC this month and earlier lambasting the Arab league.

It has also taken a more hawkish stance on Iran, labelling it an enemy and expressing maximalist demands for any peace deal.

"There are those who are obsessed about the idea of Israeli supremacy, and others, who are more pragmatic and see it like any other country... that we can integrate" into the region, Koteich said about the UAE position.

Saudi Arabia was contemplating normalising ties with Israel after the Abraham Accords, before the Gaza war abruptly derailed the efforts.

Now, the kingdom, along with much of the Gulf, views Israel as a rogue actor.

In a recent op-ed, former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal accused Israel of planning to "ignite war" between Saudi and Iran in a bid to impose "its will on the region".