Strong decision against military intervention in Iran. The announcement by the United Arab Emirates, after Trump sent an “armada” to the Gulf

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will not allow its airspace, territory or territorial waters to be used for hostile military actions against Iran, the Middle Eastern country's foreign ministry said on Monday, reaffirming its commitment to neutrality and regional stability, according to Reuters and AFP.

The ministry “reaffirmed the commitment of the United Arab Emirates not to allow its airspace, territory or waters to be used for any hostile military action against Iran,” states the Abu Dhabi diplomacy statement.

Uncertainty over the possibility of US military action in Iran remains even after US President Donald Trump said last week that a US “armada” was heading to the Gulf, but that he hoped he would not have to use it.

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers were sent to the Middle East. “We have a lot of ships heading that way, just in case … I'd prefer nothing happens, but we're watching them very closely,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to the United States after speaking with world leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

At another point, the American leader specified: “We have an army … heading in that direction, and we may not need to use it.”

Trump's warnings to Tehran were against killing protesters and resuming the nuclear program.

Iran has been engulfed, since the end of December last year, by protests which, according to organizations that campaign for the defense of human rights, have led to the death of thousands of people, including some simple passers-by. Human rights groups describe the unrest as the worst crackdown since Shiite Muslim clerics seized power in the 1979 revolution.

The United Arab Emirates hosts thousands of US troops at Al Dhafra Air Base, near the capital Abu Dhabi, one of several US military sites in the Gulf.

The UAE also refuses to provide logistical support for the attacks, the Emirati foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday, stressing that “dialogue, de-escalation of conflicts, respect for international law and respect for the sovereignty of states” are the best way to respond to “current crises”.

The United Arab Emirates hosted a trilateral meeting between Russian, Ukrainian and American negotiators in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday – a first since the start of the war in Ukraine – with talks focusing on terms to resolve the four-year-old military conflict, a goal currently blocked by the thorny issue of Donbass.