Amid a fresh wave of intercepted drones and a fire at a major oil zone, the UAE government has scheduled a media briefing for 3:30 pm on Tuesday to address what officials are calling an unprecedented security situation. The session will air live on Abu Dhabi Channel.
The announcement arrives hours after Fujairah became the latest emirate drawn into the fallout from Iran’s ongoing retaliatory campaign. Authorities there confirmed that debris from a successfully intercepted drone ignited a blaze at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone on Tuesday morning. Emergency crews brought the fire under control, no injuries were reported, and operations at the facility resumed. Officials urged residents to rely only on verified government sources.
Until now, Abu Dhabi and Dubai had absorbed the bulk of Iran’s aerial assault, which began on February 28 following coordinated US-Israeli strikes on Iranian territory. The expansion to Fujairah — a critical oil transit hub along the Strait of Hormuz — underscores how widely the threat has spread across the federation.
Over the first three days, the UAE’s layered air defenses tracked 174 ballistic missiles, destroying 161, while 13 fell harmlessly into the sea. Of 689 drones detected, 645 were neutralized, though 44 landed within UAE territory. Eight cruise missiles were also intercepted and destroyed. Three foreign nationals — from Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh — lost their lives, and 68 people of various nationalities sustained injuries described as minor.
The briefing also comes as Abu Dhabi pushes back against international media narratives about its military readiness. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday rejected reporting by Bloomberg that it characterized as false and misleading, insisting the country operates integrated short-, medium-, and long-range air defense systems backed by deep munitions stockpiles. The ministry called on journalists to verify claims through official channels before publication.
On the diplomatic front, Abu Dhabi has moved aggressively. It shuttered its embassy in Tehran and pulled out its ambassador and all diplomatic staff — a sharp rupture in ties with a neighbor it had previously engaged through quiet dialogue. The day before, Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar summoned Iran’s ambassador to deliver a formal protest, telling him the strikes violated promises Tehran received that Emirati territory would not serve as a staging ground for military operations against Iran.
Seven nations — the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United States — issued a joint statement condemning what they described as indiscriminate attacks on sovereign territory and civilian infrastructure. Each signatory reaffirmed its right to self-defense.
Commercial aviation remains severely disrupted. Etihad Airways said all scheduled flights to and from Abu Dhabi are suspended through Thursday, though limited repatriation and cargo operations may proceed with government coordination. Over 80 percent of Dubai-bound flights and more than half of those serving Abu Dhabi were still cancelled as of Tuesday, according to tracking data. Schools, theme parks, and public venues across the country remain closed under precautionary guidance.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has maintained that Abu Dhabi retains full legal authority to respond militarily but has so far opted for restraint — a posture that Tuesday’s briefing could either reinforce or recalibrate.
