UAE Suspends Trade With Iran After Missile Attacks and Tanker Strike

The AP reported Wednesday evening that the United Arab Emirates has suspended all trade with Iran. The move came in response to missiles launched from Iran earlier today toward key sites in Dubai, as well as an attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on UAE tankers as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz. According to the report, trade between the two countries totaled roughly $28 billion in 2024.

As reported, at the start of the war, the UAE came under heavy fire from Iran on a regular basis, and most trade between the two countries, once important trading partners, came to a halt. At the end of June, as the fighting subsided, some maritime trade resumed.

Beyond trade in locally produced goods, "The United Arab Emirates is important to Iran as a re-export hub and helped the country absorb some of the shocks caused by sanctions," Mohammad Perzangen, a professor of Middle Eastern economics at the University of Marburg in Germany, told the Associated Press.

"Iran is therefore heavily dependent on the UAE, not because the United Arab Emirates itself produces a third of Iran's imports, but because it serves as a key gateway for Iran to access goods from third countries and commercial infrastructure."

The UAE Foreign Ministry said it made the decision to impose punitive measures on Iran, while maintaining that it remains committed to "dialogue, cooperation and regional integration."