UAE minister says Iran can't be trusted: 'We are not fools'
Ahead of newly announced talks this week between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad, Reem Al Hashimy, the United Arab Emirates minister of state for international cooperation, said that any peace deal reached "has to be a good" one that ensures lasting peace.
"There's no point in kicking the can down the road when we're just going to end up where we started, maybe even with a more emboldened regime that wants to continue to hurt its neighborhood," Al Hashimy told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
The UAE has sustained more direct attacks from Iran than any other country since the war started, according to the Gulf Research Center, including against non-military targets in urban areas.
"It's very clear that they've chosen to go down this path because we are everything that they're not. We're a model of economic prosperity," Al Hashimy said. "We used our oil wealth to build an economic powerhouse. They used their wealth for nuclear programs that are nefarious, for missiles, drones, proxies."
Since the war began Feb. 28, Iran has retaliated against the U.S. and its Gulf partners not only militarily, but also economically, by restricting ship traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz. Global oil prices have skyrocketed since the war started, raising fuel prices for cars, air travel and more.
President Donald Trump has insisted that a deal with Iran must include an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and he reiterated his threat Sunday to wipe out Iran's energy infrastructure if it does not agree to his demands.
"We're offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don't, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran," Trump wrote in a post to his social media platform. "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!"
Al Hashimy said she supports Trump's push to secure a deal preventing Iran from using the strait as leverage, saying "maximum pressure" is what moves a deal forward.
"Being able to weaponize the straits ... is a really serious tool that the Iranians have taken forward, which is to hurt cities from Des Moines to Delhi in spiking up fuel prices and spiking up food prices," Al Hashimy said. "They don't have the right to do that."
Even if a deal is secured, Al Hashimy said the Iranians have a lot to do to be trusted to uphold an agreement, saying "trust is earned."
"We are not fools," Al Hashimy said. "Right now, they're going to have to really step up in a significant way for us to be able to believe what they say again."
