UAE condemns Iranian strikes on Gulf states as attack on Barakah nuclear plant triggers IAEA emergency session
Amid a sharply escalating regional war, the UAE Foreign Ministry issued statements condemning Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting fellow Gulf states Kuwait and Bahrain, declaring solidarity with both. Multiple Arab and international reports indicate the UAE's Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi was itself struck, prompting an extraordinary session of the IAEA where states including Morocco condemned the attack on civilian nuclear infrastructure. Reports relayed via Russian state media (TASS citing NYT) describe a broader US-Israel military operation against Iran, with Iranian retaliatory strikes hitting US bases across the Gulf — including in the UAE — and Tehran moving to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where the US reportedly coordinated passage of over 100 commercial vessels in May. Separately, the UAE continued its established humanitarian-mediation role, facilitating a 370-prisoner Russia-Ukraine POW exchange.
Why it matters
Barakah is the Arab world's first nuclear power plant, and a strike on it crosses a major threshold, raising the prospect of radiological and environmental catastrophe and pulling the Gulf's energy-and-trade hub directly into open conflict with Iran. The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly a fifth of global oil supply, so any closure or militarization threatens the world economy and the UAE's own security and reputation as a stable financial and logistics center.
🔎 Ground signal
Note that several escalation claims trace to state-aligned chains (TASS via NYT, Russian Embassy sources); the Barakah strike and IAEA emergency session are corroborated across multiple Arab and Western-cited reports, but the fuller war narrative should be treated cautiously pending independent confirmation.