WASHINGTON/DUBAI/JERUSALEM – Iran warned it could target U.S. “hideouts” in the United Arab Emirates as a major UAE energy hub suffered disruption after a drone attack on Saturday, and U.S. President Donald Trump said “many countries” would send warships to the region.
As the war entered its third week, Iran projected defiance after U.S. forces hit military sites at its own main oil hub, warning that parts of the UAE were a legitimate target and urging civilians to evacuate.
The war has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, and created the biggest oil supply disruption in history, pushing prices sharply higher as maritime traffic has halted in a region that delivers a fifth of the world’s oil.
Some oil-loading operations have been suspended in the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, a major bunkering hub and crude export terminal, industry and trade sources said on Saturday, with TV footage showing plumes of dark thick smoke rising into the air.
An Iranian military spokesperson called on people in the UAE to evacuate the ports, docks, and “American hideouts” saying U.S. forces had targeted Iranian islands from those areas.
Trump said many countries would send warships to allow shipping to pass freely through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world’s fossil energy supplies. He did not provide details on which countries would do so but in his Truth Social post he said he hoped that China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would send ships to the area.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, has said the strategic waterway should remain closed as a tool of pressure.
“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump wrote.
“In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water,” he wrote.
Trump had threatened to strike the oil infrastructure of Iran’s Kharg Island hub unless Tehran stopped attacking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump on Friday said the U.S. had “totally obliterated” military targets on the island, the export terminal for 90% of Iran’s oil shipments, which lies about 300 miles (500 km) northwest of the strait.
Iran, however, played down the extent of the damage while threatening to step up its use of more powerful weapons and warning parts of the UAE were a legitimate target.
“We declare to the leaders of the UAE that Iran considers it a legitimate right to defend its national sovereignty and territory by targeting the origin of American enemy missile launches in the shipping ports, docks, and military shelters of the U.S. hidden in some cities of the UAE,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities and warned it would target U.S. companies in the region or companies in which the U.S. had shares.
The UAE’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to the Iranian accusation that the attack on Kharg Island came through the UAE.
Nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones were launched from Iran towards the UAE on Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said.
Iran warned residents to leave areas near Jebel Ali port in Dubai, Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s Fujairah port and said it was targeting branches of U.S. banks in the Gulf.
Fujairah, outside the Strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude oil – a volume equal to about 1% of world demand.
“The IRGC is sending a message that there is no safe harbor in this rapidly expanding conflict,” said Helima Croft, analyst at RBC Capital. “The fact this comes hours after the U.S. strike on Kharg Island also signals that Tehran will not let Washington control the terms of escalation and impose dominance.”
The U.S. Central Command on Saturday said its forces had struck more than 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg Island, destroying sites including naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers.
Behind the scenes, resentment had already been mounting in Gulf Arab capitals at being drawn into a war they neither initiated nor endorsed but are now paying for economically and militarily, regional sources have told Reuters.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the United Arab Emirates president, said in an X post on Saturday: “The Iranian strategy, which reflects its inability to confront U.S. and Israeli strikes by targeting Arab Gulf states, reveals a military impotence, a moral bankruptcy, and a political isolation.”
