The two Western-aligned nations have long condemned Tehran’s aggression in the Middle East, and have denied taking part in active conflict.

But it emerged yesterday that both carried out separate attacks in March and April.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15813633/Saudi-Arabia-UAE-carried-secret-revenge-attacks-Iran-Tehran-pounded-oil-gas-facilities-war-Middle-East.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawRxuFRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeEbirYydv_Mt1dK2WBhZLyP_7dIX9ZcxdT5YFHuCumaf_2QzIz3g4oxwvFs8_aem_FB0c3-CCGW9GSiz61TWD7Q

The post Saudi Arabia and UAE ‘carried out secret revenge attacks on Iran’ after Tehran pounded oil and gas facilities during war in Middle East first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post UAE reports drone and missile attack from Iran as ceasefire is challenged first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://apnews.com/article/opec-united-arab-emirates-leaving-cartel-4966108c3fafacb67181152216deda14?fbclid=IwY2xjawRh1JxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeA6YKfGHV85BrHrGNveZHlAjpV-ZTbO5V2unzhGIG0mI67kQ1KJKC6SYxlIM_aem_kva4sdskABD9oCLX440zjw

The post United Arab Emirates will leave OPEC in a blow to the oil cartel first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Yemen airstrikes show national security is red line that Saudi Arabia won’t let UAE cross -analysis first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Greetings from Tyler,

All the network news is dead set against our President. They’ve worked overtime trying to engineer some crisis. Latest is the gift from Qatar. It’s a beautiful 747 and you’d think that the President was accepting it on his own behalf. It’s a 747 with all the bells and whistles that anybody could want. The mainstream is trying to pretend it was a gift to you know who, and he very deftly rammed that question down the reporter’s throat when she asked it in such a way to pretend like it was a bribe. She instantly regretted it, at least I hope she did.

I watched the president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, and he was welcomed in a way that you don’t see every day. The Benny show played the Biden visit, where Biden had to drive an hour to visit the Royal Family, and then they fist-bumped. In this instance, the entire Royal entourage came to the airport to greet the President. They took him through some hall of progress, where they’re trying out new innovations, and then to the hall to speak.

He lifted sanctions on Syria. It may have something to do with the fact that Bashir Assad fled Syria no doubt taking vast sums with him. Anyway, he’s gone just in time. We’ve heard about all the shipping trouble in the Red Sea, and the Houthis were responsible. There are no reporters on the ground, but our jets responded, and now they want to make peace. Imagine that!

President Trump alluded to our weapons capability in his speech, and said nobody wants to be the first to find out. He praised the King and his deputy and said the place has changed since he was last there. They toured him around their opulent displays and he took it in.  Then he was introduced for his speech. He had a veritable posse with him, some of the richest, smartest guys on earth. You’ve seen a Trump speech before, and this was just as confident as you remember.

He dropped the bombshell about Syria. Says that sanctions would keep them from achieving what’s possible, so he’s dropping them. Keeping this Holy War going is a fool’s errand. We knew that long ago, but…insanity you know, fed down through generations. It’s a family tradition to hate the Jews, and want to annihilate them. I doubt Trump can stamp out the hatreds that have been handed down since Biblical times. He’s prying Syria away from Iran.

Putin is playing hardball on Ukraine. Maybe Trump can convince everybody that it’s in their best interest to stop the killing. Meanwhile the war drags on. Zelensky acts like Russia is going to threaten us and the world if he doesn’t get what he wants. Maybe you’ve got a different take on Zelensky, but I don’t think he’s on the up and up. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but he’s gone all over the world begging for money and weapons.  He better be careful. He’s just about worn out his welcome.

I think we’ve got a completely different situation on our hands and the sooner everybody realizes it the better. We’ve suffered through a lot of financial peril in our lives. With any luck that’s over. We’ve got a champion leading the United States, and if that isn’t an answer to prayer, I don’t know what to tell you.

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – May 16, 2025 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Trump wraps up Gulf tour with AI and energy deals in UAE first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Storm dumps heaviest rain ever recorded on United Arab Emirates first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

On Monday, Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a statement calling for a “a peaceful solution” to the dispute over the Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs islands “in accordance with international law.”

Iran on Wednesday summoned Russia’s ambassador in Tehran, Alexey Dedov, after a statement Moscow made in favor of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and against Iran’s claim to the contested three islands.

On Monday, Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a statement calling for a “a peaceful solution” to the dispute over the Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs islands “in accordance with international law.” The statement followed a daylong meeting that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hosted in Moscow. Iran then summoned the ambassador to voice its “objections on the content of the statement,” Agence France-Presse reported.

The dispute over the Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunbs islands dates back decades. Iran seized control of the islands on Nov. 30, 1971 — just two days before the UAE became a country. The UAE claims sovereignty over the islands, but Iran still administers them and has repeatedly defended its claim.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/07/iran-summons-russias-ambassador-over-uae-islands-dispute#ixzz87Gfaiy8o

The post Iran summons Russia’s ambassador over UAE islands dispute first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a comprehensive free trade agreement Tuesday morning, the first time the Jewish state has signed such a deal with an Arab country.

Israeli Economy and Industry Minister Orna Barbiva signed the deal with the UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq al Marri.

The deal marks the culmination of months of negotiations to hammer out the details of the comprehensive agreement, which will eliminate tariffs on 96% of trade goods and streamlines regulations for trade between the two countries.

Israeli ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Amir Hayek, tweeted Tuesday morning that the deal was “Done”, after earlier writing that the agreement would be signed within the hour.

Tuesday’s agreement is the UAE’s second free trade deal, the first being signed with India in February.

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/328509

The post Israel signs free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

These statements weren’t surprising given the widespread impression that the Abraham Accords—which later grew to include Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco—were motivated largely by Arab fear of and animosity toward Iran. Israel’s comments, suggesting it aimed to use the accords as a platform to build a “regional NATO” to deter Tehran, fed this impression and underlined the fact that Israel, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE see Iran as a common enemy and have quietly collaborated for years to prevent Tehran from establishing hegemony in the Persian Gulf and Middle East at large.

However, recent events in the region highlight the need to use the Abraham Accords not only as a stick to threaten Iran, but as a means of defusing tension in the region.

First and foremost, it’s important to remember that the UAE and Israel have fundamentally different relationships with Iran that stems, in part, from their respective regional positions (in addition to the obvious major differences in religion and political systems).

The UAE has had territorial and other disputes with Iran for decades, including Iran’s occupation of three small islands in the Persian Gulf since the days of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as well as ongoing differences in Yemen. But the UAE and, particularly Dubai, have also had lucrative economic relations with Tehran. Given the UAE’s status as a global hub for trade, tourism, and investment, the UAE relies on stability and is no longer entirely confident that the United States would come to its aid in the event of a military confrontation with Iran.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have engaged in talks with Tehran following attacks on oil tankers off the coast of the UAE and missile and drone strikes on Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil facility in 2019, which occurred after the Donald Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. On April 28, 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman went so far as to say that the Kingdom is seeking “a good and positive relationship with Iran.”

The UAE’s situation is further complicated by its geography: it’s adjacent to Iran and home to a sizable Iranian community. Far from looking for a confrontation, many Emiratis are concerned that a military conflict could destroy its impressive but fragile infrastructure.

Israel, on the other hand, sees Iran as an imminent existential threat. Apart from conversations between former officials, Israel and Iran have had no overt contact for years and actively oppose each other directly and through proxies.

Unless Iran gets close to a nuclear breakout capability, Israel and the UAE aren’t likely to move against Iran together overtly—the UAE has too much to lose. But the Emirates could help defuse tension with Iran at a time when Israeli military activity in Syria continues against Iran.

Recent events concerning tensions between Iran and Israel only sharpen the need to create a communication channel between the parties to prevent escalation. The March 7 killing of two members of the IRGC, which has been attributed to Israel, and reports of an alleged Israeli attack on a drones factory run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps near Kermanshah in February, together with the Iranian response—which included the firing of missiles at what Tehran alleges was a Mossad base in Iraqi Kurdistan, in addition to a cyber-attack on Israeli government sites on March 14—may bring the parties closer to an armed confrontation than in any other point in their history.

The UAE could help avoid escalation by establishing a “hotline” to reduce the risk of miscalculations that lead to war. This could be especially useful at a time when Russia, which might have served such a role in the past, is preoccupied with the war in Ukraine and its consequences.

In recent months, there has been a dramatic change when it comes to diplomatic relations and connections among some Middle Eastern countries. From a situation in which most countries didn’t talk to Israel or often even each other, there are new connections and a re-evaluation of the role of the United States.

Israel, lacking any overt channel of communication with the leadership in Tehran, has been left with the “language” of drones and missiles, with the danger that the “war between the wars” could escalate into the real thing. A new indirect channel is needed to help prevent this.

The relationship that Israel has managed to build with Hamas in the Gaza Strip—through Egypt as mediator—is an example of such a relationship. Although Hamas rejects Israel’s right to exist and Israel sees Hamas as a terrorist organization, the Egyptian channel has sometimes made it possible to prevent and contain conflict.

The United States, which also lacks relations with Iran, has previously used Qatar, Oman, and the Vienna process to facilitate discreet dialogue with Tehran. Despite the common perception that the Abraham Accords is anti-Iran, there are constructive ways to use new relationships in the region to keep the present, uneasy peace. Arab Gulf countries should create a communication channel between Israel and Iran. It will not be easy, but it could keep hostility from triggering a regional war.

Danny Citrinowicz served for twenty-five years in a variety of command positions units in Israel Defense Intelligence (IDI) including as the head of the Iran branch in the Research and Analysis Division (RAD) in the Israeli defense intelligence and as the division’s representative in the United States. Follow him on Twitter: @citrinowicz.

Source: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iransource/israel-and-iran-need-to-turn-down-the-heat-the-uae-could-be-the-best-choice-as-conduit-%ef%bf%bc/

The post Israel and Iran need to turn down the heat. The UAE could be the best choice as conduit first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.