Overview
- Last weekend White House envoy Steve Witkoff met privately with UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed on Sardinia to discuss next steps on Iran, according to multiple sources.
- On the same timeframe the U.S. Treasury moved to cut off the UAE branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr from the U.S. dollar system and the UAE central bank opened an urgent review of the bank’s Iran-linked transactions.
- Abu Dhabi had already suspended trade and financial ties with Iran days earlier after a rise in attacks on UAE-linked tankers, a shift that removes a longtime re-export route for Iranian goods.
- Washington has also ordered U.S. embassies to deliver formal demarches urging countries to stop trade with Iran and is assembling an interagency enforcement task force to carry out 'Operation Economic Outcast.'
- The campaign relies on excluding foreign banks from the dollar system and close UAE cooperation, a combination that could choke Tehran’s revenue streams and affect Gulf trade and regional shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.