UAE adviser: diplomacy, not force, can avert war with Iran

Anwar Gargash, presidential adviser to the United Arab Emirates, told the Manama Dialogue on Sunday that military options offer no quick exit from the confrontation now gripping the region and that only diplomacy can prevent another round of war. His remarks at the annual security summit in Bahrain, organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, gave official voice to a position shared across Gulf capitals: the crisis demands political tools, not escalation.

Gargash said the UAE hopes for a breakthrough in Qatar-led mediation aimed at averting renewed confrontation between the United States and Iran. The forum gathers regional and international state, defense and foreign-affairs officials and experts in Manama.

“We don’t really want to see another round of confrontation in the region,” Gargash told the audience.

The Iran war, which began on Feb. 28 with joint strikes by the U.S. and Israel followed by Iranian attacks on the Gulf nations, has made this “a watershed year” for the region and the world, he said. He argued the crisis demands “a lot of wisdom, with political tools being our main tools,” adding that military solutions would only complicate an already complicated scene and would not bring quick off-ramps. Still, he acknowledged that “the rules of logic” show the American and Iranian positions remain far apart. “If these positions are not bridged, then we have to worry about the worst,” he said, though he stressed it is not in the interest of the region or Iran to withstand another round of war.

Meanwhile, other officials at the forum pressed the same case. Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, told the gathering a day earlier: “The second round (of escalation) will be more dangerous, more destructive, and it will lead to nowhere.”

Diplomatic channels, however indirect, appear to remain open, at least according to Tehran’s own account. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iranian negotiators are in Qatar discussing a proposal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz soon. In remarks shared on his Telegram channel, Araghchi said no direct talks are being held with the U.S. and that the outcome depends on answers Washington provides to “the Iranian questions.” He expressed hope that the U.S. would choose “diplomacy over other paths” and said Iran was ready for both defense and diplomacy, depending on Washington’s “rationality.”

The shadow of possible escalation hung over the three-day forum, and the record of recent months explains why. Before a ceasefire was reached in April, the UAE absorbed the largest number of airborne attacks from Iran, more than 3,000 drone and ballistic missile strikes targeting airports, military and oil facilities, according to IISS; most were intercepted. Gulf governments have since spent billions of dollars strengthening their defenses. Gargash said the war has solidified U.S.-UAE relations, making them “even more important” and central to the UAE’s ability to defend itself, though he added that his country and the region remain braced for possible escalation.

Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, took a similarly cautionary line before the assembled officials. He said his country welcomes “every effort to reduce tensions, prevent escalation and create opportunities for dialogue.” But he described what he called a pattern of Iranian attacks or threats against sea, air and data facilities, endangering the region’s and the world’s stability and prosperity, and said Iran has continued even after the ceasefire, most recently last month by threatening underwater data cables. He placed attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Saudi Arabia within the same pattern. “The hands may change, the approach doesn’t,” he said.

The stakes for Bahrain itself were laid out by IISS figures: at the height of the war, Iran fired 500 drones and nearly 200 ballistic missiles at the country, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, hitting the naval base, residential buildings, the financial district and a water desalination plant. This summer, the Houthis have escalated attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and airports, citing Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa airport, and have hit critical oil pipelines and disrupted air traffic.

Underlying it all was an uncomfortable accountability question: the absence of a coordinated defense response among the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. At the height of the war, the states bearing the brunt of Iranian strikes responded nationally, each working with U.S. command and control centers in the region, an arrangement IISS said at times hindered the overall defensive effort. Gargash offered a rare candid criticism of the collective failure. “Nationally, we have. Each state independently has, or sometimes in terms of bilateral cooperation,” he said. “In one of our most critical crises, we collectively have not risen to the challenge.”

Whether the Gulf states can convert that admission into a coordinated defense architecture before the next round of escalation remains the open question the Manama forum left behind.