THE Israeli prime minister’s reported secret visit to Abu Dhabi last Sunday has reinforced the growing nexus between the UAE and the Zionist state. It was not the first time that Benjamin Netanyahu had made an unannounced trip to the Gulf country. In March this year, at the height of the Iran war, he travelled there to meet UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
During the same period, the head of Mossad, Israel’s main intelligence agency, made two trips to the country to apparently coordinate military operations. And last week, while 77 nations boycotted the Israeli prime minister’s speech at the UN General Assembly, the UAE delegation remained seated — a clear show of solidarity with the Zionist state.
Since joining the Abraham Accords in 2020, the UAE has not only established diplomatic relations with Israel but has gone much further, elevating the relationship into a de facto alliance — even as the Israeli state was carrying out a genocidal war in Gaza. That relationship deepened as the US, along with Israel, imposed an unprovoked war on Iran.
The extraordinary relationship between the two countries marks a developing unholy alliance in a rapidly changing regional order, as America’s war on Iran drags on. The UAE has reportedly carried out its own strikes on Iran and has also borne the brunt of retaliatory strikes — with devastating effect — despite the deployment of the Iron Dome air defence system, run by Israeli military personnel.
Its close military cooperation with Israel has drawn the UAE directly into the war on Iran.
It is the first time this highly advanced system has been deployed outside Israel and the US, signalling the critical role of the Emirates in a potential Israeli-led regional defence alliance. It is also the first Arab-Israeli relationship to acquire real military and industrial substance. And this Israel-UAE nexus goes beyond the ongoing Iran war: the UAE appears to be a critical part of Israel’s plan to build what Netanyahu calls the “hexagon of alliances”.
That idea was pitched by the Israeli prime minister early this year. Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Feb 22, 2026, days before the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Netanyahu presented his vision of creating “a hexagon of alliances around or within the Middle East” — a bloc against what he described as the “radical Shia and emerging Sunni axis”. He named four members — Israel, India, Greece and Cyprus — and left the remaining slots (Arab, African and Asian states) unnamed. But it is widely assumed that the Emirates is one of the six, given its close diplomatic and defence ties with Israel.
Netanyahu also pointed to intelligence-sharing and counterterrorism cooperation with India as the core of the project. Modi’s February visit produced a Special Strategic Partnership between the two countries, which have long cooperated on defence and intelligence. Israel is one of India’s largest arms suppliers. The UAE, too, has built close defence ties with New Delhi. All three are part of the four-nation I2U2 grouping, alongside the US, and of IMEC, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. This web of alliances, bound together by bilateral defence relationships, is shaping the emerging security landscape in West Asia and beyond.
Although the Israeli-proposed hexagon alliance has not yet taken formal shape, it is widely seen as a potential counter to the Makkah alliance — which Israel portrays, wrongly, as a ‘Sunni alliance’. Netanyahu has repeatedly called Turkiye a greater threat than Iran and a major challenge to his ‘Greater Israel’ ambition. Against this background, the growing Israel-UAE diplomatic and defence cooperation is alarming.
Over the past few years, the UAE has drifted away from its Gulf allies on a range of regional and foreign policy issues, above all by widening its differences with Saudi Arabia. The Emirates is accused of arming and financing a separatist group in strife-torn southern Yemen, bringing the UAE into conflict with Riyadh. It is also widely believed to be arming and funding an armed group involved in Sudan’s civil war, one accused of mass atrocities. And it backs Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia recognised only by Israel — while every other Arab state supports a united Somalia.
A few months ago, at the height of the Iran war, the Emirates pulled out of Opec, the Saudi-led oil cartel, severely damaging the organisation. Its close military cooperation with Israel has drawn the Emirates directly into the war on Iran, endangering its own security in the process. Any participation in an Israeli-proposed alliance could prove extremely destabilising for the region.
Pakistan’s own relations with the Emirates have hit a low over the past few years. Early this year, the UAE withdrew a $3 billion deposit from the State Bank of Pakistan, and once-close ties have become significantly strained. With a large Pakistani workforce in the Emirates, the shift has put Pakistan in a very difficult position, which requires a delicate balancing act.
The widening regional divide — in the middle of the Iran war, Israel’s continuing genocide in Gaza and its military actions in Lebanon — is extremely troubling. Israel’s idea of a ‘hexagon alliance’ that also includes India is dangerous for Pakistan’s security, particularly as Israel and India are already tied in a strategic relationship.
It is certainly not good news for the Middle East and the wider region, which is being rocked by America’s unending war on Iran. The situation has become much more complicated with the escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Last week, the military chiefs of the three allied countries met to discuss the deteriorating situation, and there is talk that Article 5 of the alliance — under which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all — could be activated. Any such move could draw Pakistan directly into the conflict. With a resolution to the Iran war still far off, an expansion of the conflict could render the situation far more explosive. Against this backdrop, the unholy alliance between Israel and the UAE could further destabilise the region, with far-reaching implications.
The writer is an author and journalist.
X: @hidhussain
Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2026
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