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UAE-Iran pressure talks
White House envoy Steve Witkoff met last weekend with Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, to discuss next steps on Iran, according to two sources cited by yaliBnan.
“Witkoff met last weekend with the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates to discuss next steps on Iran”
The meeting took place on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia and was not announced by the White House, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The talks were framed as part of the Trump administration’s push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while choking Iran economically, with the UAE described as a key partner in the U.S.-led operation to guide oil tankers through the strait.
yalibnan also links the meeting to the day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast,” and to subsequent Treasury action to cut off the UAE branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr from the U.S. financial system over business with Iran.
Strait and sanctions enforcement
Middle East Eye, citing Axios, similarly says Witkoff held talks with the UAE's national security adviser to discuss the next steps on Iran and that the meeting was held on the Italian island of Sardinia.
The yaliBnan account says the UAE had served as a major trading and re-export hub for Iran, noting that trade between the countries in 2024 reached $28 billion.
It adds that the UAE decided to halt all trade, commercial exchange and financial transactions with Iran, and that Emirati officials told the Trump administration that any economic pressure campaign against Iran must include all key countries that trade with the Islamic Republic.
yalibnan further reports that the Trump administration is working to set up an interagency task force to coordinate implementation and enforcement of the economic pressure campaign against Iran, after U.S. embassies were instructed to demand countries “immediately and systematically” sever all trade with Iran.
UAE response after IRGC attacks
yalibnan reports that an Iranian delegation visited Abu Dhabi for low-key diplomatic talks with Emirati officials on Aug. 11, where the Iranians said they wanted to deescalate and improve relations.
“On Aug. 11, an Iranian delegation visited Abu Dhabi for low-key diplomatic talks”
It says the Iranians asked the UAE for help securing food and medicine and urged the Emiratis not to cooperate with U.S. sanctions, a request that was immediately rejected, according to the sources.
In the following few days, yaliBnan says the IRGC intensified its attacks on UAE national oil company tankers that tried to transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and that the Emiratis were furious and decided to suspend all business with Iran.
The same account ties the later sanctions push to U.S. diplomatic messaging, including a special message sent to U.S. diplomatic posts in Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Hong Kong, Doha, London, Berlin and several Central Asian capitals instructing them to demand that host governments shut down all branches of Iran’s Melli and Saderat banks affiliated with the IRGC.