The Wall Street Journal reports:

The United Arab Emirates carried out dozens of airstrikes against Iran beginning in the early days of the war and continuing through the day after the April cease-fire was announced, people familiar with the matter said, a deeper involvement than was previously known in the air campaign led by the U.S. and Israel.

The extent of the strikes is further evidence of the country’s growing willingness to protect what it sees as its strategic interests, setting it apart from some of its neighbors in the Gulf region, which have taken a far more cautious approach to the threat from Iran.

The attacks were conducted in coordination with the U.S. and Israel, both of which provided intelligence, the people said. They included targets on Qeshm and Abu Musa islands in the Strait of Hormuz; Bandar Abbas; the oil refinery on Lavan island in the Persian Gulf; and the Asaluyeh petrochemical complex, some of the people said.

Some of those strikes targeted Iranian energy facilities in response to Tehran’s attacks on U.A.E. oil and gas infrastructure, some of the people said. The Asaluyeh strike, carried out with Israel, garnered significant international backlash and led the U.S. to ask Israel to stop striking energy facilities.

Gulf countries said ahead of the war they wouldn’t let their airspace or bases be used for attacks. But some shifted course after the war began and Iran responded by launching missile and drone attacks against Gulf population centers, energy infrastructure and airports in an effort to raise the economic and political costs of the conflict.

The U.A.E. suffered the brunt of those attacks, as Iran targeted it with more than 2,800 missiles and drones, far more than it fired at any other country including Israel.

The scale of the U.A.E.’s hawkish response exacerbated divisions within the Gulf. In early April, Saudi Arabia complained to the U.S. that U.A.E. attacks were raising the risk that regional energy facilities could come under fire from Iran, something that could spike oil prices and rock global markets, some of the people said. The Saudis wanted the U.S. to pressure the U.A.E. to stop the retaliatory attacks and join diplomatic efforts by regional countries, they said. [Continue reading…]