UAE restrict US strikes on Iranian proxies
The UAE is among Arab states restricting US strikes on Iranian proxies launched from their soil, according to Politico on February 14th.
Anonymous official US and western sources said a number of countries were “increasingly restricting” US operations against Iran-backed groups in the Middle East, with the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict’s massive civilian death toll calling many Arab governments’ support for the US into question.
The war, which began when the Hamas militant group killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, is now in its fifth month. Israel’s brutal reactionary bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians to date, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s estimates.
Gaza’s death toll has enraged the populations of many Arab countries, worrying their autocratic governments.
One official said the UAE’s administration “don’t want to appear like they’re against Iran and they don’t want to appear too close to the West and Israel for public opinion reasons.”
The UAE is home to al-Dhafra Air Base which hosts dozens of US aircraft, including fighter jets and reconnaissance drones, involved in operations across the region.
On October 26th, US F-16 fighter jets carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies. Although Washington did not disclose where the aircraft came from, al-Dhafra is one of the closest facilities that typically hosts F-16s in the region.
In recent weeks, US President Joe Biden ordered further strikes throughout the region, following 170 separate attacks by Iranian proxies on US military assets in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan since October.
After a January 28th attack on a US base in Jordan killed three service personnel, long-range B-1 bombers were flown from Ellsworth air force base, in South Dakota to respond.
READ: 39 dead in US strikes on Iraq and Syria
Pentagon spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder called it a “demonstration that we maintain global strike capability, which means we can move quickly and flexibly to respond globally at the times and places of our choosing and that we’re not limited to just the aircraft that are in Central Command.”
Yemen’s Houthis have also launched 46 attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, since November 19th. Retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets have been launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, in nearby international waters.
READ: Houthis’ attacks in the Red Sea are hiking shipping fees
A US official dismissed the premise that there is tension between the Washington and Abu Dhabi over military basing, pointing to recent launches of US aircraft from al-Dhafra to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf.
Politico