UAE Suspends All Trade With Iran After Antiship Missile Strike
The cut-off closes the free-zone channel that Iranian networks rely on for transactions
The United Arab Emirates has suspended all trade with Iran, including financial transactions, after weeks of attacks on its oil shipping interests and a ballistic missile launch directed at waters near the Emirates.
The measure reaches well beyond conventional cargo flows. Smuggling and money-laundering networks that keep Iran's government running conduct a large share of their transactions inside the UAE's opaque free zones, and a blanket suspension removes that channel.
The UAE defence ministry said its air defences detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran toward the country on Tuesday. "UAE air defenses detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran toward the country, with the first falling outside the country's territorial waters, while the second fell within the territorial waters," the ministry said. It added that "Assessments carried out showed that the two ballistic missiles detected coming from Iran were targeting maritime navigation and fell into the sea."
Iran denied involvement in the launch. It has carried out dozens of similar attacks in recent months and possesses antiship ballistic missile systems, a technology used repeatedly against Western shipping interests by Iran-backed Houthi forces during the Red Sea crisis.
The strike failed, but it follows a sustained campaign against Emirati shipping. At least 19 vessels affiliated with UAE state oil company ADNOC have been struck since the start of the conflict. ADNOC has been the most active GCC oil-shipping player still using the non-Iranian side of the Strait of Hormuz, which has made its ships a priority target for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a force with long-held ambitions to control the waterway as a strategic asset.
Recent Iranian drone strikes on ADNOC tankers had comparatively little effect on traffic. An antiship ballistic missile arrives on a near-vertical trajectory at high velocity and would be expected to produce substantially greater damage.
The suspension marks a second round of restrictions after a thaw in July. Shipping between the two countries slowed to a trickle during the first two months of intense hostilities, before cross-Gulf trading from the Emirates to Iranian ports returned to higher volumes last month.
