UAE official slams Gulf allies for ‘weak’ response to Iranian attacks

A senior United Arab Emirates official criticizes the country’s Gulf allies over their response to Iranian retaliatory attacks in the region following the Israeli-US strikes that launched the Middle East war.

Presidential adviser Anwar Gargash says the Gulf states supported each other logistically in the crisis, but he lambasts their political and military response.

“The GCC’s stance was the weakest historically, considering the nature of the attack and the threat it posed to everyone,” Gargash says, referring to the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council.

Gargash says he “expected such a weak stance from the Arab League,” the 22-member organization of Middle East and North African nations based in Cairo. “But I don’t expect it from the GCC, and I am surprised by it,” he tells a conference in Dubai.

Gulf monarchies have always had “difficult relations” with Iran, Gargash says.

In recent years he says they pursued a “containment policy” through mediation, energy partnerships, strategic agreements and, in the case of the UAE, trade ties. But “these policies have failed miserably, and we are now facing a major reassessment.”