Iran has nearly dominated all of the Middle East.

Countries around the region are shifting their stance.

Americans hosted bases in Gulf countries for two reasons. One was to provide a certain safety net to the gulf countries they were in and another was to keep their eyes on the region, keep their interests in check and also strike any enemies they have within the region.

What happens when an American base cannot move against its one enemy in the Middle East?

People then began to question the purpose of the existence of those bases and that’s exactly what has happened yesterday in a few Gulf Countries.

The UAE has restricted American operations in the Middle East, at least against Iran and this was reported by Politico.

In it they state that the UAE has been restricting access to basing and overflight for the assets participating in retaliatory strikes across the Middle East.

If you remember those 3 US Marines that died and the retaliatory strikes that followed? This was in relation to those strikes and at that time UAE was basically pulling the US back from attacking Iran using their base.

And that’s because MBZ is in a pickle here. He has an angry mob both at home and outside in the world and their anger is directed at Israel for the atrocities in Gaza and the complicity of Washington.

At the same time he doesn’t want to anger Iran, obviously because of Iranian investment in Dubai and also because Iran controls most of the militias within the region. It cannot go into a war with Iran, because America won’t fight them on their behalf and they don’t even have half of the army Iran has, let alone the drones and missiles, as well as the intelligence and experience.

When we talk about MBZ, he’s been working hard to fix things up with Iran. It’s important to understand that Iran is not lightweight; they have the support of groups like the Houthis and Hezbollah.

These aren’t your regular troops; they’re powerful non-state armies that have shown they can stand toe-to-toe with professional armies. So, MBZ knows what’s at stake here. He’s aware that getting too cozy with America, especially when tensions are high, might end up pushing Iran further away, which is something he’s been trying to avoid.

The situation is already super tense, and taking such a step could really anger Iran. But it’s not just about Iran getting upset. This kind of move could also upset Muslims all over the world.

I know how unbelievable that sounds since UAE is a staunch ally of Israel, however the issue here is that, It’s a delicate balance. MBZ is still seen as a muslim monarch and if he wants to protect his seat then he has to be really careful.

He’s walking a tightrope, trying to maintain good relations with both sides without causing more trouble in an already heated environment.

Initially MBZ wanted to get to Washington through Israel, because they wanted a powerful ally that could hold off against Iran. They were under the impression that if he could get the Americans to support the UAE militarily then they would help him against Iran, if a conflict ever broke out in the future.

So the main goal was to get on good terms with the United States which was through normalization with Israel, seeing it as a key move.

But since the conflict began, the US hasn’t moved forward militarily against Iran. Even to help Israel. They haven’t directly launched an attack against Iran, just hitting their proxies, empty buildings and other places for PR, there hasn’t been a substantial attack against an Iranian asset.

It’s like the US tried to stand strong, sending carriers and naval ships, but ended up showing weakness instead.

This made many people within the region take a step back and ask themselves whether America is going to be here for the long term or not and once they asked that question, they understood that it’s better to mend ties with your neighbors who are probably going to be here longer than any external party will be.

And America understood this fact, which is why they sent Blinken, tried to convince their partners to rethink their position and support Israel militarily and in response to that many leaders said they are willing to work with Israel, but they’re not willing to work with Netanyahu.

However, since then their position has changed, as the Muslim World and also the Global South and other parts of the world are looking in Horror at what Israel is doing. None of those countries want to be seen standing with a nation that conducts genocide so blatantly and openly.

There’s consequences to standing with such a country and they don’t want to reap them.

And UAE is one of them.

One thing I want to add is that Israel played a very important part in strengthening Iran’s influence within the region and also weakening America’s influence.

Both economically and militarily, Iran is a powerhouse and with proxies located closely to neighboring countries that pose a threat to Iran, they have come out stronger in the region, more than before.

Each of these proxies are powerful enough to take on each gulf country in the Middle East and now that they are being equipped with drones and missiles, they have become even more dangerous than before.

Saudi and UAE wanted a NATO styled agreement to protect themselves from Iran, instead they didn’t receive and Iran has developed its own NATO to counter Saudi, UAE and even Egypt should they decide to test them.

Thanks for reading.