UAE says rebuilding trust with Iran will take 'ages'

Published April 24, 2026 Updated April 24, 2026 05:47pm

Rebuilding trust between Abu Dhabi and Tehran will take “ages and ages”, UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash has said, after Iran targeted the United Arab Emirates during the Middle East conflict, AFP reports.

“You can’t be attacked with 2,800 missiles and drones and then talk to me about trust. That will take ages and ages,” Gargash has said at a World Policy Conference in the town of Chantilly, north of Paris.

The top official outlines that 89 per cent of the Iranian attacks targeted “civilians, civilian infrastructure, energy infrastructure”.

“Tehran was telling the Arab Gulf countries that ‘you don’t matter in my calculations,’ and I think this is going to last for a very long time,” he said.

“To the region — to the United Arab Emirates and other countries, Iran will be seen as a strategic threat,” Gargash said.

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