The United Arab Emirates’ defense ministry said in a Tuesday statement that it is ‘currently dealing with missile and drone attacks’ from Iran.
The United Arab Emirates is actively engaging with missile and drone attacks from Iran, the country’s defense ministry said in a post on X on Tuesday, in what appears to be the second day of Iranian attacks on the Gulf nation.
The country’s Ministry of Defense a day earlier said that it intercepted more than a dozen missiles and drones that originated from Iran, while it said that an oil-producing port facility was attacked by Tehran hours before.
UAE air defense systems “are currently dealing with missile and drone attacks originating from Iran,” the Gulf Arab nation’s Ministry of Defense wrote on X about the new round of attacks, adding that the air defenses are also “actively engaging” with drone threats.
The country’s ministry reported that “sounds heard in scattered areas of the country are the result of the UAE’s air defense systems intercepting ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.”
The announcement came as U.S. Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday morning warned Iran that attacks on military assets or commercial shipping vessels would prompt the United States to respond with “overwhelming and devastating” force.
“We prefer this to be a peaceful operation, but are locked and loaded to defend our people, our ships, our aircraft, and this mission,” Hegseth said in a press conference at the Pentagon alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.
U.S. forces exchanged fire with Iranian forces on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway used for transporting large amounts of oil and natural gas to the rest of the world from the Persian Gulf.
Iranian officials have said Tehran wants to assert control over the strait and would attack U.S. forces or other commercial ships attempting to transit through the waterway.
Last week, the country’s top leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a statement through state-run media that new legal rules were drafted by Iran to manage the strait, although the Trump administration has said that such proposals are a nonstarter in peace negotiations.
“We’re not looking for a fight,” Hegseth said at the press conference. “But Iran also cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway.”
