UAE, Israel press US for security assurances should Iran nuclear deal be revived: report

The United Arab Emirates and Israel have reportedly lobbied the U.S. to create a security strategy for the Middle East as an agreement for Iran to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal is supposedly close to being reached.

Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that the two nations, adversaries before normalizing relations in 2020, are asking for a clear security strategy that includes enhanced missile defenses and intelligence sharing.

Three of the sources who spoke to Bloomberg said that the UAE and Israel have approached the Biden administration separately with their requests, but have also coordinated together amid concerns that Iran would use money from its oil exports to fund more proxy groups in the region.

Israel has expressed its opposition to Iran rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action throughout the months-long negotiations. Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that reviving the nuclear deal would result in a “more violent” Middle East.

When reached by The Hill, a State Department spokesperson said in a statement, “The United States firmly believes in the importance of our decades-long partnerships in the Middle East and our shared commitment to a peaceful, secure, and prosperous region where our partners are secure from external aggression.”

One State Department official told Bloomberg that the U.S. is working with its partners in the region to confront threats from Iran, while a senior Biden official told the news organization that discussions were ongoing about the threat landscape.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused some concerns over the state of negotiations. Russia is a part of the negotiations and European allies like France, the U.K. and Germany have warned that Russian demands in the Iran talks could potentially derail the progress that has been made. 

Moscow has demanded guarantees that its trade with Iran would not be affected by the massive sanctions that have been issued against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.

The State Department official said the U.S. had held “regular, senior level discussions with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others on a collaborative approach to managing market pressures stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as on the range of issues facing our countries.”

—Updated Monday at 4:31 p.m.