U.A.E. Preparing to Help Open Strait of Hormuz By Force
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What recent events have escalated tensions in the Strait of Hormuz?
Is the Iran war escalating or winding down? We'll get the latest as a third U.S. aircraft carrier heads to the region. Plus, the Supreme Court takes on President Trump's push to limit U.S. citizenship. And a win in Washington's critical minerals push, even if exporting cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo is likely easier said than done.
It's going to have to really turn these assets around. But if it manages to do that, could produce up to somewhere around 5% of the world's cobalt, which would be a huge boon to the U.S. critical mineral supply chain.
It's Wednesday, April 1st. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.
After sustaining Iranian attacks for weeks, the United Arab Emirates is considering becoming a combatant in the Iran war, making it the first Persian Gulf country to do so. We're exclusively reporting that the UAE is now preparing to help the U.S. and others to open the Strait of Hormuz by force after having assessed its ability to do things like clear the waterway of mines. With more on what could be a turning point in the war and Gulf involvement in it, I'm joined by the Journal's Middle East Bureau Chief Andrew Dowell. Drew, why now? Gulf countries have been getting hit by Iran, including the UAE, since the start of the conflict, and yet they haven't today taken the fight directly to the country.
What explains this shift, apparently, in calculus from the UAE?
To this point, they've been concerned about defining themselves as a combatant because that's a posture that could outlive Trump's interest in the war and leave them at odds with a... with a big neighbor right across the Persian Gulf for an extended period. They're looking at the situation and realizing that they are in fact a combatant, that Iran isn't just shooting at US interests in the UAE, but took aim at things like luxury hotels, iconic buildings, the airport several times in what they consider to be a deliberate attempt to sow panic and kind of undermine their economy and create pressure to end the war. And it's not a situation they think they could live with. The other thing is that Iran's making very clear that it wants to have an extended administrative role over the Strait of Hormuz even after the war is over, which could involve charging tolls or deciding who gets to go through and doesn't get to go through, which again is just completely unacceptable to the UAE.
Their economy is largely dependent on energy, which flows through the Strait of Hormuz. They have a big shipping industry, which also relies on free access through that waterway, and they get food through there. And so they're trying to rally people support for a military solution to change things. The journals reported that Trump is considering ending the war without resolving the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, which to them is sort of a worst case scenario.
Tell us more about what the Emirates is considering here, which from our reporting sounds like it kind of marries together the use of some Emirati military capabilities, but also the expenditure of the country's diplomatic capital.
That's right. Yeah. So the main thing they're doing is lobbying for passage of a UN resolution that was introduced by Bahrain, under which the Security Council would authorize the use of force to open the Strait of Hormuz, which would give any country that wanted to participate in an effort like that diplomatic cover or, you know, the cover of kind of international legitimacy in order to go ahead. So that's one thing. And standing on the side of that resolution is standing on the side of military action against Iran, which is a major step for a Gulf country. And then, as we've reported, they're willing to get involved. And, you know, it's a small country with a small military, but they do have the potential to do things on the water, like potentially sweep mines.
They are probably the best positioned country along the Strait, aside from Iran.
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