document · Interview
Anwar Gargash (diplomatic adviser to the UAE president; architect of the Abraham Accords) — Atlantic Council conversation at the Europe Gulf Forum, 16 May 2026: after Iran's strikes on the Gulf he says the Gulf's "outreach to Iran" has "failed" and "trust... is broken," and pointedly decouples Gulf security from Israel — "we did not see 7,000 Israeli projectiles... We saw 7,000 Iranian projectiles here" — framing Iran (not Israel) as the threat and seeing "opportunities also for Israel."
English 
United Arab Emirates 2026-05-20 Tier 2 — primary or translation
Politician: Anwar Gargash
Content
All that, in my opinion, has failed. We have a new reality today, and as we move forward, I think I distinguish very clearly between the concept of trust and the concept of relations. Relations with Iran, I’m sure at some stage, some of it will return at various degrees, et cetera, but trust I think is broken and it will take a long time to earn it back.
Regardless of the rhetoric and ideology, we did not see 7,000 Israeli projectiles hitting or targeting Gulf States. We saw 7,000 Iranian projectiles here. So what happens here I think as we move forward is that the Iranian strategy, which was meant to undermine America’s presence in the region, has made it much more relevant, and I think it creates opportunities also for Israel in many ways. English translation
[Source is English (Atlantic Council "Inflection Points" verbatim transcript of a conversation with AC president Frederick Kempe at the Europe Gulf Forum, 16 May 2026; published 20 May 2026).] Declared positions of Dr Anwar Gargash — diplomatic adviser to the President of the UAE (and former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs), one of the Emirates' leading foreign-policy voices and a principal architect of its 2020 normalization with Israel (the Abraham Accords). Speaking after the 2025 Iran war in which Iran struck Gulf states, he argues the Gulf's long-standing "outreach" to Iran has "failed" and that, while relations with Tehran may partly resume, "trust... is broken and it will take a long time to earn it back" (the "hawks turned out to be right"). Crucially he decouples Gulf security from the anti-Israel framing — "we did not see 7,000 Israeli projectiles... We saw 7,000 Iranian projectiles here" — names Iran (not Israel) as the threat, says Iran's strategy made the US presence "much more relevant," and that the war "creates opportunities also for Israel." This is the UAE establishment's pragmatic, pro-Western, pro-normalization, Iran-is-the-real-threat worldview — the opposite pole from the "axis of resistance" figures (al-Houthi, Qassem) for whom Israel and the US are the enemy. (He has separately framed the Abraham Accords themselves as "a sovereign strategic choice" tied to halting West Bank annexation and preserving a two-state horizon.) [Axes: regional-stance (anti-Iran / Gulf security), west-alignment (pro-US / pro-Western), palestinian-question (normalization with Israel), regime-stance (status-quo Gulf-monarchy pragmatism).]
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(Gargash, 2026) Gargash, A.. (2026). Anwar Gargash (diplomatic adviser to the UAE president; architect of the Abraham Accords) — Atlantic Council conversation at the Europe Gulf Forum, 16 May 2026: after Iran's strikes on the Gulf he says the Gulf's "outreach to Iran" has "failed" and "trust... is broken," and pointedly decouples Gulf security from Israel — "we did not see 7,000 Israeli projectiles... We saw 7,000 Iranian projectiles here" — framing Iran (not Israel) as the threat and seeing "opportunities also for Israel.". atlanticcouncil.org. Retrieved July 28, 2026, from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/inflection-points/uae-presidential-advisor-anwar-gargash-on-the-iran-war-the-abraham-accords-and-europe-gulf-cooperation/
Gargash, Anwar. 2026. "Anwar Gargash (diplomatic adviser to the UAE president; architect of the Abraham Accords) — Atlantic Council conversation at the Europe Gulf Forum, 16 May 2026: after Iran's strikes on the Gulf he says the Gulf's "outreach to Iran" has "failed" and "trust... is broken," and pointedly decouples Gulf security from Israel — "we did not see 7,000 Israeli projectiles... We saw 7,000 Iranian projectiles here" — framing Iran (not Israel) as the threat and seeing "opportunities also for Israel."." atlanticcouncil.org. Accessed July 28, 2026. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/inflection-points/uae-presidential-advisor-anwar-gargash-on-the-iran-war-the-abraham-accords-and-europe-gulf-cooperation/.
@misc{doc-document-be24bdb6-6d0c-47c7-b61f-5a5b48131266,
author = {Gargash, Anwar},
title = {Anwar Gargash (diplomatic adviser to the UAE president; architect of the Abraham Accords) — Atlantic Council conversation at the Europe Gulf Forum, 16 May 2026: after Iran's strikes on the Gulf he says the Gulf's "outreach to Iran" has "failed" and "trust... is broken," and pointedly decouples Gulf security from Israel — "we did not see 7,000 Israeli projectiles... We saw 7,000 Iranian projectiles here" — framing Iran (not Israel) as the threat and seeing "opportunities also for Israel."},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-05-20},
howpublished = {Online; hosted at atlanticcouncil.org},
url = {https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/inflection-points/uae-presidential-advisor-anwar-gargash-on-the-iran-war-the-abraham-accords-and-europe-gulf-cooperation/},
urldate = {2026-07-28},
note = {Retrieved via Tayyar at https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/be24bdb6-6d0c-47c7-b61f-5a5b48131266},
} Retrieved via Tayyar: https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/be24bdb6-6d0c-47c7-b61f-5a5b48131266 on July 28, 2026. Tayyar is a research host for primary sources, not the author of this document.