Iran’s top security official, Ali Shamkhani, will visit the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, in the latest sign of improving relations between the Islamic republic and Gulf states.
The high-profile visit comes after Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed last week to restore diplomatic ties within two months, putting an end to a seven-year rift. The agreement between the rival Middle East powers was part of a China-brokered deal signed by Shamkhani and his Saudi counterpart in Beijing.
Iranian analysts say Shamkhani has extra credibility as a regional dealmaker because the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed him secretary of the powerful Supreme National Security Council.
“The fact that Shamkhani is directly involved in such talks shows the Islamic republic is determined to improve its ties with the Arab states” in the Gulf, said Saeed Laylaz, an Iranian political analyst. He added that Shamkhani’s priorities at this week’s talks should be ending the nine-year Yemen conflict and easing the transfer of foreign currencies into Iran.
Nournews, affiliated to Iran’s leading security organisation, said Thursday’s visit to Abu Dhabi was in response to a visit by the UAE national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, to Iran in December 2021.
Sheikh Tahnoon had also made a secret visit to Iran in 2019 to help ease tensions between the two neighbours after an attack on oil tankers off the coast of UAE that the US blamed on Iran. The attacks raised fears in Abu Dhabi that Tehran could target the UAE, a US ally, in revenge for crippling sanctions imposed by the then US President Donald Trump.
Drone strikes on the UAE capital Abu Dhabi last year, claimed by Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen, highlighted its vulnerability to attacks. The Gulf state, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020, has also been keen to distance itself from any potential military action taken by the Jewish state against Iran.
Nournews said senior economic, banking and security officials would accompany Shamkhani for this talks on bilateral, regional and international issues. According to analysts, Iran has used businesses in the commercial centres of the UAE over the past 10 years to circumvent debilitating sanctions imposed by the US in response to Iran’s nuclear programme.
The UAE has been among Iran’s top trading partners for many decades even during difficult times between the two states. Tehran’s latest official figures show $13.6bn worth of goods were imported to Iran through the Gulf state, which accounted for 30.7 per cent of all imports during the first 10 months of this Iranian year, which ends next week.
Relations between the UAE and Iran deteriorated after Iranian vigilantes attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran in 2016 to protest against the kingdom’s execution of a senior Shia cleric. The UAE responded by summoning home its ambassador in Tehran. Last year it restored full diplomatic relations after a tentative rapprochement.
Tehran’s latest diplomatic moves have raised hopes among many Iranians and the country’s business community that Iran’s hardline leaders might be preparing for a revival of the 2015 nuclear accord with global powers. But despite the thawing of regional relations there has been no strong signal from Iran’s leaders that they are ready to return to the nuclear deal. Trump exited the accord in 2018.
“Iran has no choice but to eventually make concessions with the US as both have reached a dead end in dealing with each other,” said Laylaz, adding “but for now Iranians feel relieved that some progress is happening in foreign policy”.
