Explosive Report Reveals the UAE Has Been Secretly Attacking Iran During the War

(AP Photo/Fars News Agency/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the United Arab Emirates “has carried out military strikes on Iran,” citing “people familiar with the matter.”

The explosive report is the first time since the war began that the UAE has been implicated as an active combatant in the war, joining the U.S., Iran, and Israel as a primary actor.

The UAE has been targeted by Iran with missile and drone strikes throughout the war, with several major impacts in Dubai and on oil infrastructure in the country.

The UAE, nicknamed “Little Sparta” by former Defense Secretary James Mattis, is a regional military powerhouse with an advanced air force and intelligence service.

“The strikes, which the U.A.E. hasn’t publicly acknowledged, have included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, the people familiar with the matter said. That attack took place in early April around the time President Trump was announcing a cease-fire in the war after a five-week air campaign and sparked a large fire and knocked much of its capacity off line for months,” added the WSJ.

The report added that the Trump administration “wasn’t upset by the attack, as the cease-fire hadn’t yet settled into place, and it has quietly welcomed the participation” of the UAE and any other regional countries, according to a source.

Trump noted in the Oval Office on Monday that he believed that Iran attacking its regional neighbors was a major strategic mistake.

“You saw that when they started shooting rockets. Nobody thought Saudi Arabia and Qatar and UAE were going to get hit, or Kuwait and Bahrain. And it was a tremendous strategic mistake, and they wasted those missiles. We have the Patriots that knocked them down every time,” Trump told reporters during a Q&A.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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