The disclosure by US Ambassador Mike Huckabee that Israel secretly deployed Iron Dome air defence batteries and military personnel to the United Arab Emirates during the recent war with Iran has ripped the mask off what has been euphemistically called “normalisation”. For the first time since the 2020 Abraham Accords, the world has official confirmation that Israeli boots are on the ground in an Arab Gulf state, not to assist in humanitarian efforts, but to actively engage in a war.
The full scale of the secretive military cooperation has been staggering. According to multiple sources confirmed by Huckabee and US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, Israel sent an Iron Dome battery and several dozen Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) personnel to operate it to the UAE during the war. The decision was made following a direct conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. This marks the first known deployment of the advanced, US-funded air defence system outside of Israel, a technology that has been conspicuously refused to Ukraine. The UAE, which hosts thousands of US military personnel, lacked the indigenous capacity to defend itself from Iranian retaliation.
This deployment, which reportedly included the transfer of the “Spectro” surveillance system and a version of the Iron Beam laser defence system, was purely defensive. However, the regional perception is damning: a leading Arab nation became an active military launchpad for the US-Israeli war machine. The UAE also reportedly carried out military strikes on Iran, making it the only other country to join the US and Israel in the war. When Iran launched retaliatory strikes, subjecting the UAE to an estimated 550 ballistic missiles and 2,200 drones.
The Abraham Accords were sold to the world as a pathway to peace and coexistence. In reality, the “benefits” Huckabee gloats about have been a death sentence for peace in the region. As Huckabee stated at the Tel Aviv Conference, "Just look at the benefits. Israel just sent them Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help operate them”. The benefits for the region have been war and destruction. The UAE’s normalisation gave Israel the political cover to carry out its most aggressive military campaigns with Arab impunity.
Huckabee further laid bare the true nature of the accords when he called on other Gulf states to “pick a side” between Israel and Iran. He explicitly argued that “Israel is not out to destroy you... It’s not sending missiles into your civilian territories,” ignoring the fact that Israel had just spent months laying waste to Gaza and bombing Lebanon.
While Abu Dhabi has publicly warned that Israeli annexation of the West Bank constitutes a “red line”, its actions on the ground tell a radically different story. The EU recently greenlit sanctions on Israeli settlers over extreme violence against Palestinians. UN officials reported in harrowing detail how Israeli forces have killed 70 Palestinian children in the West Bank since early 2025 and carried out over 2,500 displacements. Yet the UAE remains silent.
Even as Israeli settlers, whom Huckabee acknowledged may not even live in the territories, commit “terrorism” and bring “dishonour” to the state, Abu Dhabi does nothing to leverage its “extraordinary relationship” to rein in the rogue state. Meanwhile, Iran has consistently condemned the UAE’s “strategic stupidity” in normalising relations with an entity it calls “fake, illegitimate and anti-humane”.
The UAE’s deepening military integration with Israel is a terrifying precedent. It has effectively transformed the Gulf into a forward-operating base for the US-Israeli security axis. As noted by strategic analysts, rather than replacing the UAE’s Western-provided systems like Patriot and THAAD, the Iron Dome integrates into a “layered air defence architecture” that serves a specific strategy: to enable further Israeli strikes on Iran.
Iran retaliated against the UAE precisely because it was a launching pad for attacks. Tehran has repeatedly stated that no Emirati site is safe if it is used to attack the Islamic Republic. The deployment of Israeli Iron Dome batteries does not make the UAE safer, it makes it a permanent military target.