US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee confirmed at a conference in Tel Aviv that Israel secretly deployed Iron Dome anti-missile batteries and military personnel to the United Arab Emirates during the Iran war — marking the first publicly acknowledged deployment of Israeli military forces to the Gulf state.
The revelation represents a historic milestone in Israeli-Emirati relations, which were formalized through the Abraham Accords in 2020. The UAE, home to the major cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, faced a genuine threat from Iranian missile and drone attacks, prompting Israel to extend its air-defense umbrella to its Gulf partner in an unprecedented show of military solidarity.
The deployment came as Iran launched strikes across the region. In a separate flashpoint, Iran attacked Kuwait Island, where China is currently helping construct a major port, raising fears of broader regional destabilization and threatening significant infrastructure investment tied to Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative.
On the northern front, UN peacekeepers stationed in Lebanon recorded more than 1,296 Israeli military strikes over just three days, underscoring the scale and intensity of ongoing operations. Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah positions killed at least 13 people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday alone, among them a soldier, a child, and two rescue workers, according to Lebanese health officials.
In the city of Nabatieh, strikes left five people dead, including two Civil Defense rescuers who were killed while responding to earlier attacks — a pattern that drew sharp international condemnation. Humanitarian organizations warned that targeting first responders undermines any effort to protect civilian life during active hostilities.
On the sanctions front, the Trump administration announced measures against 12 individuals and entities accused of facilitating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its sale of Iranian oil to China. The move is part of a broader strategy to choke off Tehran's revenue streams and limit its capacity to fund proxy forces across the Middle East.
The confluence of these developments — Israeli air-defense sharing with Gulf Arab states, Iranian aggression against regional neighbors, Hezbollah engagements in Lebanon, and new US sanctions — signals a reshaping of Middle Eastern security architecture, with Israel and its Abraham Accords partners increasingly functioning as a unified defensive bloc against Iranian expansionism.
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