The United Arab Emirates has denied any involvement in launching a retaliatory airstrike on a water desalination plant in Iran amid the war between Tehran and US-Israel forces.
According to a senior official from the UAE administration, the country did not launch retaliatory strikes on Iran as it would not strike civilian sites if it were to enter the war, only military ones, a Jerusalem Post report said.
This comes amid earlier reports indicating that the UAE had launched an airstrike against Iran—a move that would exponentially add to the chaos in the Gulf.
According to the latest update from the UAE's defence ministry, 16 ballistic missiles and 113 UAVs were destroyed by its air defences as of Sunday afternoon.
UAE air defences intercept 16 ballistic missiles, 113 UAVs
— وزارة الدفاع |MOD UAE (@modgovae) March 8, 2026
UAE air defences today (8th March, 2026) detected 17 ballistic missiles, of which 16 were destroyed, while 1 missile fell into the sea. A total of 117 UAVs were also detected, with 113 intercepted, while 4 UAVs fell… pic.twitter.com/BTikC5pRyd
However, it also noted that four people had died since the start of the war a week ago, while more than 100 others have sustained injuries.
However, Abu Dhabi is allegedly considering other ways of pressuring Tehran into stopping its attacks on the Gulf country, such as freezing billions of dollars worth of Iranian assets, a Wall Street Journal report claimed on Friday, citing officials in the know.
This could even escalate into a wider crackdown on local currency exchanges, which are used to move money outside of formal banking channels, in addition to seizures of Iranian vessels, the report added.
A UAE official also told Euronews that despite early preparations for the Gulf chaos, they were still overwhelmed by the scale of the attacks from Iran on its US bases—especially the Al Dhafra base in Abu Dhabi.
“The UAE wants the Iranian aggression against the non-combatant states, the Gulf states, to end immediately,” the official said, adding that Abu Dhabi's focus was to defend its population and infrastructure while keeping the wider conflict contained.
“Any new negotiated settlement with Iran will no longer be confined to the nuclear aspect. Missiles are now centre stage, because missiles now are not seen as self-defence,” the official noted.
