Ambassador Dan Kurtzer

And now, if you were a business person, would you want to locate or relocate into Dubai, where the financial center was hit by Iranian rockets, where the United Arab Emirates facilities were attacked?

and where what looked like a very safe, comfortable, modern environment became the centerpiece of the war.

The numbers may change, but four weeks into this war, going on five weeks, the United Arab Emirates has been hit by more missiles and drones from Iran than Israel.

And if you're a banker or a financial services person or a business person or a tourism executive,

you're going to run for cover.

Well, it's going to have many impacts.

First of all, there's again, even before the war ends, a reaffirmation of American military power, but also a reaffirmation of the degree to which the United States has either forgotten how to do diplomacy or is uninterested in diplomacy.

Second, what's being called Israel's military dominance will also be reaffirmed.

Under cover of this war, there's also a war going on between Israel and Lebanon.

And not only is Iran and its infrastructure being destroyed, but Lebanon's infrastructure is being destroyed because the Lebanese government is too weak, perhaps unwilling, therefore, to disarm Hezbollah as it was supposed to do under terms of the 2024 ceasefire.

And under cover of these two wars, there is a rush to annexation, de facto annexation of Israel by Israel in the West Bank, with very significant violence being done by settlers, some settlers, against Palestinians.

So it's a region that's not going to calm down simply because the guns fall silent in Iran.

A lot of rebuilding obviously will take place.

So the contractors and those who clear out rubble will have a windfall.

But the rebuilding will only last as long as there is not a next war.

And there's no guarantee that there won't be a next war.

There's an argument that the Israelis were pushing Trump to do this.

There's credible evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was also pushing Trump to go to war, except he did it quietly.

Netanyahu did it from a loud podium and MBS, as he's called, did it quietly in large part because in Israel, going to war against Iran was and remains popular.

And in Saudi Arabia, going to war against Iran is not popular.