The United Arab Emirates has handed roughly $3 billion to Iran and promised to free up billions more, four sources told Reuters, describing an arrangement meant to stop Iranian missile and drone strikes on the Gulf state. Two regional sources said the sum Abu Dhabi had agreed to release reached $10 billion, more than $3 billion of it already paid over.
Two other sources estimated the overall sum at $20 billion and said the step was taken in exchange for an end to the attacks, with one source saying a first instalment of $3 billion had already been transferred. Reuters could not establish whether the money belonged to the UAE or came from Iranian funds long frozen in the country’s banks.
Abu Dhabi rejected the report. The foreign ministry called the claims “untrue and not based on any facts or reliable information” and insisted that no funds had been released, transferred or moved to Iran.
A UAE official, asked to comment, said the country was working to ease tensions and foster peace. Iran’s last direct strike on the UAE happened on May 4, when it targeted Fujairah port.
Talks had started several weeks earlier but quickened after officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps travelled to Abu Dhabi to meet the UAE’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan. One source said Iran had also sought a similar deal from at least two other Gulf Arab nations.
Sources
- UAE paid Iran $3B, agreed to release $10B more to halt attacks – Reuters | Iran International
- Report says UAE to release billions of dollars to Iran, in major shift meant to halt attacks | The Times of Israel
