# Report says UAE secretly joined Israeli-US strikes on Iran
On 2026-05-11, the packet said a report in The Wall Street Journal found that the United Arab Emirates had quietly taken part in strikes on Iran, exposing a deeper level of alignment between Abu Dhabi, Israel and the United States during the war.
The evidence available here is second-hand but specific. Middle East Eye summarized the Wall Street Journal report as saying Emirati forces targeted a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Gulf in early April. The UAE has not publicly acknowledged the operation. That silence is important because it means the claim rests on reporting from unnamed people familiar with the matter rather than a formal state admission.
According to the packet, the alleged strike caused a large fire and disabled much of the refinery’s capacity for months. It was also described as a significant escalation because it happened while US President Donald Trump was promoting a ceasefire after a five-week air campaign. If accurate, it would mean the UAE was not merely aligned politically with Israel and the United States, but actively participating in military operations against Iran.
The reported consequences did not stop with the strike itself. The packet says Iran responded with missile and drone attacks against the UAE and Kuwait, then directed most of its firepower at the Emirates. More than 2,800 projectiles were said to have been launched at the UAE, a figure that illustrates how quickly a covert operation can widen a conflict’s geographic reach.
The economic fallout described in the report was severe. Middle East Eye said the retaliation shook the UAE’s economy, disrupting air traffic, hurting tourism and rattling property markets. It also said more than $120bn had been wiped from market capitalisation on the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges by the end of April and that more than 18,400 flights had been cancelled. Those figures, if accurate, show how war can immediately spill into finance, travel and business confidence.
The packet also indicates that Washington quietly endorsed Abu Dhabi’s involvement. That claim, again reported through the Wall Street Journal account, would suggest the UAE’s role fit into a larger strategic alignment rather than being an isolated decision. In that reading, the UAE is part of a security axis with Israel and the US that critics say has intensified the conflict rather than containing it.
That makes the story more than a battlefield note. It is about the architecture of the war itself. If Gulf states are moving from observers to direct participants, the conflict becomes harder to localize and harder to de-escalate. It also raises the stakes for neighbors that have tried to balance ties with Iran while maintaining relations with Washington and Jerusalem.
The evidence in the packet does not provide independent confirmation of the Lavan Island strike, so the article should keep the claim properly attributed and avoid presenting it as settled fact. But even as a reported revelation, it is significant because it suggests the war’s active participants may be broader than publicly acknowledged.
