Should UAE relations with Iran concern Israel?

A report on December 12 at Israel HaYom said that “Israeli officials say Jerusalem cannot afford to have sensitive defense systems stationed in the UAE, which maintains full diplomatic and trade ties with Iran, at this time.” The report was about how Abu Dhabi had sought Israeli air defense systems over the past year, even prior to the Abraham Accords.

The report claimed that “Jerusalem is under pressure from Abu Dhabi to sell the Arab Gulf state an Israeli-developed aerial defense system for billions of dollars.” This report was picked up by The New Arab and spun in a way that made it seem Israel-UAE relations might suffer from the Emirates reaching out to Iran.

“The refusal to sell the UAE the Iron Dome and what is known as David’s Sling, both used to intercept short-range and winged missiles, came after the Gulf state allowed Iranians to ‘enter and move freely in its territory,” reported Israel Hayom.

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There’s no real evidence of this shift, the original report has indicated that the requests for air defense actually go back more than a year. Therefore the reports have nothing to do with current UAE-Iran discussions.