Iran Calls Netanyahu’s UAE Visit a “Foolish Gamble”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi fired back hard after Israel claimed Netanyahu secretly met UAE’s president during Operation Roaring Lion. The UAE flatly denied the visit but the diplomatic storm is far from over.

Iran’s Sharp Warning Shakes the Middle East

Iran did not stay quiet for long. Just hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he had secretly visited the United Arab Emirates during an active military campaign against Iran, Tehran fired back with a pointed warning one aimed squarely at the Gulf state.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took to X on Thursday to make Tehran’s position crystal clear. He said Netanyahu had now openly confirmed what Iran’s intelligence services had long suspected. “Netanyahu has now publicly revealed what Iran’s security services long ago conveyed to our leadership. Enmity with the Great People of Iran is a foolish gamble. Collusion with Israel in doing so: unforgivable. Those colluding with Israel to sow division will be held to account,” Araghchi wrote.

The message was blunt, the tone unmistakable Iran was watching, and it was not pleased.

Netanyahu’s Explosive Claim and UAE’s Flat Denial

The controversy erupted on Wednesday when Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office dropped a bombshell statement on social media. “Prime Minister’s Office Statement: In the midst of Operation Roaring Lion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited the United Arab Emirates, where he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. This visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE,” the official post read.

The claim was dramatic a sitting Israeli prime minister, making a covert trip to a Gulf Arab nation, just roughly 250 kilometres from Iran, in the middle of a live war. Only a handful of people inside Netanyahu’s inner circle reportedly knew about it, given the enormous security risk involved.

But Abu Dhabi pushed back immediately and forcefully. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a clear denial on X, stating: “The UAE reaffirms that its relations with Israel are public and conducted within the framework of the well-known and officially declared Abraham Accords, and are not based on non-transparent or unofficial arrangements. Accordingly, any claims regarding unannounced visits or undisclosed arrangements are entirely unfounded unless officially announced by the relevant authorities in the UAE.”

In other words the UAE said it simply did not happen.

A Former Insider Breaks Ranks

The denial from Abu Dhabi did not go unchallenged. Ziv Agmon a former spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office who resigned back in March came forward on Facebook to insist that he personally accompanied Netanyahu on the trip. “As someone who knows the UAE well and has lived there for long periods of time, and as someone who accompanied the PM on the historic trip that was top secret until today, I can say that the PM was received in Abu Dhabi with royal honors,” Agmon wrote.

He went further, adding: “MBZ, his family, and other dignitaries welcomed us and were happy to see the Israeli prime minister on their soil. MBZ was very respectful of the PM, and personally drove the PM in his personal car from the plane to the palace.” Agmon called the visit a “great success” one whose outcomes would, in his words, “be talked about for generations to come.”

A source familiar with the meeting separately told Reuters that Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed met on March 26 in Al Ain a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi near the Omani border and that their meeting ran for several hours.

Spy Chiefs Were Already There Multiple Times

While the debate over Netanyahu’s own visit rages on, what appears less disputed is the broader pattern of Israeli-Emirati security coordination during Operation Roaring Lion. Earlier reports, confirmed on Wednesday, revealed that Mossad chief David Barnea had visited the UAE at least twice during the conflict. Shin Bet chief David Zini had also reportedly made the trip at various points during the military campaign.

The purpose of those visits coordinating the ongoing confrontation with Iran underscores just how deep the security partnership between Israel and the UAE has grown since the Abraham Accords normalised relations between the two countries back in 2020.

Iron Dome, Airstrikes and a Petrochemical Target

The revelations go well beyond diplomatic meetings. Israel reportedly deployed an Iron Dome battery along with dozens of soldiers to operate it to the UAE during the conflict, helping defend the Gulf nation against Iranian missile and drone threats. Separately, the UAE is said to have carried out a series of military strikes against Iranian territory, including a reported attack on a refinery facility on Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf.

The two countries are also said to have jointly planned a strike against a significant Iranian petrochemical facility, though neither government has officially confirmed those operational details.

A Region Holding Its Breath

The competing claims Israel’s bold disclosure, the UAE’s swift denial, Tehran’s sharp warning paint a picture of a Middle East navigating an extraordinarily tense moment. Whether Netanyahu’s secret visit truly happened or not, the episode has laid bare the growing and increasingly public alignment between Israel and key Gulf Arab states, even as the region remains on edge over the ongoing military confrontation with Iran.

Iran has made its position clear: those who side with Israel do so at their own peril. The question now is whether that warning will reshape the calculations of any of the region’s players or simply harden the lines that are already being drawn.