The United Arab Emirates says its ambassador to Iran, Saif Mohammed Al Zaabi, will return to Tehran “in the coming days”, more than six years after the Gulf Arab state downgraded relations with Tehran. Sunday’s announcement is in line with the UAE’s efforts to strengthen relations with Iran “to achieve the common interests of the two countries and the wider region,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. The UAE cut ties with Tehran in 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic missions in Iran following Riyadh’s execution of prominent Shiite scholar Nimr al-Nimr. Last week, the foreign ministers of the Emirates and Iran had a telephone conversation and discussed strengthening ties, UAE state media reported, where they discussed sending an ambassador back to Tehran. Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed ways to “strengthen bilateral relations and areas of cooperation for the benefit of both countries,” UAE state news agency WAM reported at the time. After years of hostility on different sides of geopolitical rivalries, the UAE resumed cooperation with Iran in 2019 following attacks on Gulf waters and Saudi Arabian energy sites. Last year, Saudi Arabia also moved to improve ties with Iran at a time when Gulf Arab states are closely watching efforts to revive Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which they see as flawed because it did not address the its missile program. While Riyadh and Abu Dhabi want to stop Tehran’s moves in the region, they also want to contain tensions as they focus on economic priorities. The UAE has business and trade ties with Iran that stretch back more than a century, with the emirate of Dubai long being one of Iran’s main links to the outside world. Another Gulf state, Kuwait, earlier this month appointed its first ambassador to Iran since 2016. The warming of diplomatic relations comes after the UAE normalized relations with Israel in September 2020. Three other Arab countries – Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – also established diplomatic relations with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by United States. Even as the United Arab Emirates normalizes relations with regional foe Tehran, Emirati officials have stepped up efforts to boost trade ties with Iran and reduce the threat from its regional proxies. Earlier this year, drone and missile strikes by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen hit Abu Dhabi, damaging the UAE’s reputation as a safe haven in a volatile region.
