Key facts
- Gargash said the region should prepare for a long period of uncertainty without a decisive resolution or stable order.
- Gargash said consequences of the US war with Iran may persist for a long time.
- Gargash said the UAE opposed the US war with Iran from the outset.
- Gargash said the UAE must invest in defensive capabilities, credible deterrence and stronger international security partners.
- Gargash thanked France, Israel, Greece, Egypt and India for support and solidarity.
- Gargash said sustained UAE diplomatic engagement with Iran and other partners would be needed.
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, told the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate on November 9 that the region could face a prolonged period of uncertainty, saying a comprehensive political settlement between the United States and Iran to end a war lasting more than eight months appeared difficult.
"We should ... prepare for a long period of uncertainty in which neither a decisive resolution nor stable regional order can be taken for granted," Gargash said, according to Reuters, which reported the address.
Gargash said the consequences of the US war with Iran "may persist for a long time", requiring the UAE to invest in its "defensive capabilities, the maintenance of credible deterrence, and stronger international security partners". He said the UAE opposed the war from the outset.
Speaking in Manama on November 1, Gargash said the UAE was "braced for the worst" amid regional fears that the US was close to striking Iran and that Tehran would retaliate by attacking Gulf states, as it had earlier in the year. Some countries helped defend the UAE against Iranian attacks earlier in the year, and Gargash thanked France, Israel, Greece, Egypt and India for their "support and solidarity".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on November 8 that he did not believe a breakthrough in diplomatic efforts to end the war was imminent. Gargash said sustained UAE diplomatic engagement with Iran and other regional and international partners would be needed, and that some of that engagement in the near term might be transactional by necessity, without specifying what that might entail.