Former US official says UAE trade halt could hit Iran harder than US sanctions
Key Takeaways
- •Mark Kimmitt said the UAE’s trade suspension could be more consequential than US sanctions on Iran.
- •He said the UAE supplies about one-third of Iran’s annual imports and is its largest source of imported goods.
- •Kimmitt said Dubai has long served as a financial channel that helped Iran work around sanctions.
- •The UAE move reverses a recent period of re-engagement, including Abu Dhabi naming its first ambassador to Iran since 2016 in 2022.
- •He said other Gulf states are likely to wait before taking similar action.
A former US official says the United Arab Emirates' trade halt with Iran could be more consequential than Washington's own sanctions regime. Al Jazeera had the information.
Retired general and former US assistant secretary of state Mark Kimmitt, who served as the State Department's assistant secretary for political-military affairs under President George W. Bush, told Al Jazeera that the UAE's trade suspension with Iran could be more significant than US sanctions. He said the UAE is currently Iran's largest source of imported goods, ahead of China and Turkiye, accounting for around a third of Iran's annual imports.
That dependency carries weight because Washington has already maintained sweeping sanctions on Iran since withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear accord in 2018, restricting Tehran's oil exports and access to the international financial system — measures Iran has long worked around through intermediary trade channels of the kind Kimmitt describes.
Kimmitt also said Dubai's role as a financial hub has long provided Iran with a channel to circumvent sanctions. In his view, that makes the UAE's move potentially more significant than the US embargo.
The suspension also marks a reversal of the UAE's recent re-engagement with Tehran. Abu Dhabi named its first ambassador to Iran since 2016 in 2022, as Gulf states broadly moved toward detente with Iran, making this week's halt a striking turn in that trajectory.
He expects other Gulf states to take a wait-and-see approach for now rather than immediately following the UAE's lead. Kimmitt also compared the scale of the move to the US embargo on Japan after World War II, saying Iran could interpret it as approaching an act of war.
The comments add a new dimension to the UAE's economic response this week, framing it less as a diplomatic gesture tied to recent missile allegations and more as a potentially serious structural blow to Iran's trade and financial access.
Earlier:
UAE halts all trade and financial dealings with Iran, MoFA official says
Iran rejects UAE missile accusation, warns against unfounded claims