Under pressure, undeterred: The UAE’s measured response to crisis

When I speak to friends abroad, they still tend to picture the same familiar images when they think of the UAE: the skyline, the towers, the malls, the airports. A place of comfort and opportunity rather than confrontation. But what we’ve seen in this war has forced many of us to look at the UAE through a very different lens. Under an unprecedented wave of Iranian ballistic and cruise missiles and armed drones, the country has had to show not just how it lives, but how it defends the way it lives, and in the process, it has revealed a great deal about how Iran sees it.

From the very beginning of the attacks, the UAE became the most heavily targeted state in the Gulf. Iran has fired more missiles and drones at Emirati territory than at any other Arab Gulf country. That is not random. It tells us that, in Tehran’s calculations, the UAE is a central node: economically, politically and symbolically. It is a country that hosts key international companies and financial flows, and that plays an outsized diplomatic role compared with its size. By hitting the UAE, Iran is signalling that it views it as one of the most powerful and influential Arab Gulf actors, and therefore as a priority target when it wants to pressure the region and its Western partners.

At the same time, the way the UAE responded has sent a very different message back. Emirati air defences, working in layers and in coordination with partners, were able to intercept the vast majority of the more than 2,000 missiles and drones launched at the country. What Iran intended to be a campaign of strategic disruption turned into a series of largely contained incidents. The real story was not the hardware alone, but the doctrine, the training and the human readiness behind it.

On the ground, security forces moved quickly to protect power and water plants, airports, ports and other critical sites. Protection was for everyone: citizens, residents, migrant workers, visitors. On mornings after major barrages, traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road and queues at Metro stations looked, to my eye, almost eerily normal. There were no long lines and chaos at petrol stations, no collapse in public transport, no sense that daily life had simply fallen apart. For a country as globally interconnected as the UAE, keeping that sense of continuity under fire is a much deeper form of power than any speech.

Diplomatically, the UAE did not respond with fiery slogans, even though it had every reason to. Instead, it chose firm but measured language: clear on red lines and on its right to self‑defence, but careful not to push the region closer to the edge. That’s important when we ask how Iran looks at the UAE. Iran is facing a state that has built a reputation for calm crisis management, for back‑channel diplomacy, and for building networks of partnership from Washington to Asia. This is part of why Tehran sees it as such an influential player, and why it tries to undermine that image through pressure and intimidation.

Economically, many expected that markets would panic, that capital would flee, that investors would start to question the “safe haven” label. None of that happened in any dramatic way. Markets remained orderly, the financial system stayed stable, and the Central Bank quietly reassured the sector. For Iran, the message is uncomfortable: even when directly attacked, the UAE’s system is resilient enough that it doesn’t lose its economic rhythm. Put simply, Iran did not shake the basic confidence that draws business to the UAE in the first place.

Another dimension is the information space. In many conflicts, rumours and disinformation are the first things to explode. Here, the UAE authorities and media outlets worked to keep people informed rather than alarmed: regular briefings, clear explanations of what was intercepted and what fell, and practical guidance without sensationalism. Journalists and commentators used their platforms to explain and to correct, not to inflame. For Iran’s leadership, used to playing on information chaos in the region, facing a state that can maintain a coherent, fact‑based narrative is yet another sign of institutional maturity and, again, influence.

Socially, the UAE is probably one of the most diverse societies on earth, with people from more than 200 nationalities living and working together. In theory, this could be a point of fragility under stress. In practice, during these attacks, the dominant feeling across communities was that “this is home,” and that its security matters to everyone. The sense of shared stake – between Emiratis and expatriates, Arabs and non‑Arabs, Muslims and non‑Muslims – is exactly the kind of cohesion that makes a country harder to intimidate. When Iran looks at the UAE, it is looking at a society that rallied rather than fractured, and that is a form of soft power that is difficult to measure, but very real.

All of this brings us back to the key question: why has Iran focused so heavily on the UAE, and what does that reveal about how it views the country? Tehran sees the UAE simultaneously as a strategic hub for global finance, trade and technology in the Arab world, and as a diplomatic bridge between East and West that often helps set the tone for Gulf policy.

That combination of economic, political and symbolic weight makes the UAE, in Iranian eyes, one of the most powerful and influential Arab Gulf states, and therefore a prime target when Iran wants to send a message to the region and to the wider international community. But the paradox is that the very pressure aimed at exposing the UAE’s vulnerabilities has, in many ways, highlighted its strengths: its layered defence systems, its calm diplomacy, its stable markets, its disciplined information space, and its surprisingly cohesive society. Beyond the skyline and the landmarks, what this period has revealed is a state that has invested quietly, for years, in the unglamorous foundations of security, governance and trust. That is exactly the kind of power and influence that Iran both recognises and fears even as it continues to test it.

Dr Najwa AlSaeed is an Assistant Professor at City University Ajman