Why the UAE was targeted
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Why the UAE was targeted is the question a viewer put to John Kiriakou during the 2026 war, having noticed that the Emirates and Dubai were being hit disproportionately compared with the other Gulf states by the count of missiles intercepted.

The explanation

Kiriakou's answer looks past the current war to the previous one. "I think that the reason why the UAE has been so disproportionately targeted is that the UAE has been at the forefront of the attacks against the Houthis."

The implication is that Iranian target selection is settling an older account. The Emirates are not being struck as a proxy for the United States but on their own record.

The complication he acknowledges

Kiriakou immediately notes what makes the choice costly for Iran. "And um you know, despite the fact that Dubai is is home to thousands of Iranians and Iranian businesses, I think the Iranian government just wants to bloody the Emiratis' noses as best they can."

That concession is important to his wider account, because elsewhere he argues that Iran has strong reasons not to damage Dubai: the city is Iran's outlet to the Western world and the mechanism by which it evades sanctions. The resolution he offers is one of degree, enough fire to injure the Emirates, not enough to close the window.

The pattern of the strikes

The form the attacks took is consistent with that reading. Kiriakou describes drones and missiles hitting hotels "especially in Abu Dhabi and Dubai", chosen because striking a famous hotel damages the tourist economy in a way that striking a military installation does not.

The cost to Iran

Kiriakou's overall verdict on the Gulf campaign is that it made enemies Iran did not need. The Gulf states, he says, "would have very nervously just sat the whole thing out", until the hotels, the airports and finally the Omanis were hit.

See also

- Dubai as Iran's window
- Bombing The Omanis
- THAAD stocks in the Gulf
- Iranian strikes on Gulf hotels
