Dubai: After facing barrages of Iranian missiles that threatened its economic future, the UAE has moved closer to Israel, widening a split with ally-turned-rival Saudi Arabia and placing it in defiant opposition to Tehran.
This gamble granted the UAE, a tourism hub where 90 percent of the population is foreign, access to Israeli air defence systems to help fend off more than 2,800 drones and missiles -- effectively placing protection above all else to preserve a model based on stability, analysts said.
