UAE hopes for US–Iran breakthrough but is “braced for the worst”, Gargash tells Manama Dialogue as Gulf states press Tehran to engage
The United Arab Emirates is hoping for a diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Iran but remains prepared for a new round of fighting, presidential adviser Anwar Gargash told the Manama Dialogue, as Gulf states demanded a meaningful response from Tehran and Britain detailed air-defence support for its allies.
The United Arab Emirates is hoping for a diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Iran but remains “braced for the worst”, a senior Emirati official told a major regional security conference in Bahrain on Sunday, 1 November 2026, as Gulf governments warned that a fresh round of fighting would be more destructive than the last. The remarks, made at the closing stage of the 22nd IISS Manama Dialogue, captured the dual mood of the gathering: diplomacy is still alive, but no one in the region is counting on it alone.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said the region had no interest in another round of conflict, according to Agence France-Presse, which reported his remarks from the conference in Manama. “We’re hoping that there is a diplomatic breakthrough,” Gargash said. “It is not the interest of the region to go through another round … But I think we’re also, as we’ve shown before, braced for the worst.” The statement was carried widely on Sunday by Arab News, the Malay Mail and Gulf News, all reporting the AFP account.
The context for Gargash’s warning is a confrontation that has never fully ended. The war began on 28 February with joint United States and Israeli strikes on Iran, which retaliated by targeting, among others, Gulf countries allied with Washington. A temporary arrangement in June failed to produce a lasting settlement, and in recent days the threats have sharpened again: President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States still had to “take care of” one or two targets in Iran, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on the same day that Trump had not yet decided on fresh strikes and that Washington remained open to a diplomatic solution.
Diplomatic channels, meanwhile, are still moving. Following a visit to Tehran this week by a Qatari delegation, Iran has dispatched envoys to Qatar to continue consultations as part of indirect negotiations with the United States aimed at ending the war. Gulf officials at Manama presented that channel as evidence that talks have not collapsed, even as they stressed that progress requires a genuine response from Tehran. The Gulf Cooperation Council’s secretary-general, Jasem Mohamed Al Budaiwi, told the conference that the six-member bloc remained committed to dialogue and negotiation, but that diplomatic efforts required cooperation from the Iranian side.
Al Budaiwi also underlined a grievance that ran through the Gulf delegations’ remarks: the Gulf states, he said, had neither initiated nor sought the conflict, yet had suffered civilian casualties and damage to civilian and critical infrastructure during Iranian attacks. He called for navigation through the Strait of Hormuz to return to conditions prevailing before 28 February, when the war began — a reference to the disruption of one of the world’s most important energy waterways, through which a large share of global oil shipments pass.
Egypt delivered one of the starkest warnings of the conference. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said another round of fighting between Washington and Tehran could prove far more dangerous than the previous confrontation, telling delegates, according to Reuters, that “the second round will be more dangerous, more destructive, and it will lead to nowhere. We have to draw lessons from the past.” His intervention reflected a wider Arab concern that a new exchange would not stay contained to the original belligerents, but would drag in shipping, energy markets and neighbouring states.
Saudi Arabia’s message focused on the sea lanes. Vice Foreign Minister Waleed Elkhereiji warned that threats to international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait required coordinated regional and international action, and he condemned renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and threats to commercial shipping, accusing the Yemeni group of undermining diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. Yemen’s foreign minister, Afrah Al Zouba, accused Iran, Iraqi armed groups and Hezbollah of supporting the Houthis, citing findings she attributed to United Nations experts.
Britain used the conference to set out what it has already done to shield its Gulf allies. Middle East Minister Stephen Doughty said London had deployed air defence equipment and personnel to Saudi Arabia to help protect the kingdom against missile and drone attacks following renewed Houthi operations, and that British forces had flown defensive missions over Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and the UAE during Iranian attacks, while also providing air defence support to Bahrain and Kuwait. The disclosure added a concrete military dimension to a conference otherwise dominated by diplomatic language.
The United States, for its part, struck a firm note through Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Donald Blome, who told the conference that Washington could not allow Iran to take the region and the global economy hostage. From Tehran, the response was defiant: army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said, according to Iranian state television, that any potential new war could last longer than the previous conflict and that the American president would not be in a position to dictate the timing or the conditions of its conclusion.
What happens next is therefore finely balanced. On one side stands an indirect negotiation channel running through Doha, a stated American openness to a diplomatic solution, and a region-wide preference, voiced from Abu Dhabi to Cairo, for talks over war. On the other side stand unresolved threats, a waterway whose normal navigation has not been restored, and military preparations on all sides. Gargash’s formulation — hoping for a breakthrough, braced for the worst — is, for now, the most accurate summary of where the region stands.
