Widening Siege: UAE Trade Cutoff Deals New Blow to Iran's Struggling Economy

The United Arab Emirates' announcement that it is severing all trade ties with Iran, following a missile attack Abu Dhabi says was launched against it by the ayatollahs' regime, has tightened the economic siege closing in on Tehran. The Islamic Republic is already under an American blockade and mired in a severe economic crisis, which US President Donald Trump has vowed to deepen with new sanctions designed to pressure Tehran into accepting his terms for ending the war.

Abu Dhabi's announcement came hours after a phone call between Trump and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, though it remains unclear whether the United States was involved in the move. The UAE, like several of its Gulf neighbors, came under numerous missile and drone attacks during the war, as well as during exchanges of fire between the United States and Iran in the months following the first ceasefire in April, and it is generally considered to take a tougher, more hawkish line toward Tehran than its neighbors.

Since the beginning of August, Abu Dhabi has reported at least four Iranian attacks on its oil tankers as they attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz despite Iran's declared "ban" on passage through the waterway. No alarms had sounded in the UAE itself for a month and a half until two missiles were fired at unspecified maritime targets and landed in the waters of the Persian Gulf. The launches came amid a deadlock in negotiations between Iran and the United States, with senior officials in Tehran threatening escalation if the American blockade is not lifted. Tehran denied firing the missiles; the UAE rejected the denial and announced the suspension of all trade, exchange, and financial transactions with Iran.

(YNN/VFI News)