UAE denies Israeli claim that Netanyahu visited the country
"Any claims regarding unannounced visits or undisclosed arrangements are entirely unfounded unless officially announced by the relevant authorities in the UAE," it said in a statement.
The United Arab Emirates has flatly rejected reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a covert trip to the Gulf state, dismissing suggestions of any unannounced visit as “baseless”.
The denial came after the Israeli prime minister’s office said Mr Netanyahu had travelled to the UAE and held talks with the Emirati president during the war with Iran.
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Abu Dhabi said those claims were false, adding that no Israeli military delegation had been received in the country.
“Any claims regarding unannounced visits or undisclosed arrangements are entirely unfounded unless officially announced by the relevant authorities in the UAE,” it said in a statement.
“During Operation ‘Lion’s Roar’, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,” his office said in a statement.
The claim surfaced a day after US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Israel had deployed its Iron Dome air defence systems, along with personnel to run them, to the UAE during the conflict with Iran.
Without directly confirming Mr Huckabee’s remarks, Mr Netanyahu’s office said the trip “marked a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates”.
But the UAE’s swift denial casts doubt on whether any such diplomatic opening took place.
During the war, which erupted after US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic at the end of February, Iran targeted the UAE more than any other country.
Even after a ceasefire took effect last month, the UAE has reported repeated missile and drone strikes launched from Iran.
The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is one of Washington’s closest regional partners and among the Arab states that formalised ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords signed during US President Donald Trump’s first term in 2020.
The US said that senior US and Chinese officials had agreed that no country should control the Strait of Hormuz
Iran says Hormuz control to bring significant revenues
Iran’s military spokesman said Tehran’s hold over the Strait of Hormuz could deliver “significant” economic gains and bolster the country’s standing abroad.
Iran has largely choked shipping through the strait since war broke out with the United States and Israel on 28 February.
In normal times, the route carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, as well as other strategically important commodities.
Tehran’s control of the waterway has unsettled global markets and handed Iran a potent source of leverage, even as the United States has maintained its own naval blockade of Iranian ports under a fragile ceasefire that has held since 8 April.
“Our oversight of the Strait of Hormuz will generate significant economic revenues for our country – potentially even doubling our oil income – and will strengthen our influence on the international stage,” military spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said, according to ISNA news agency.
He said Revolutionary Guards naval forces controlled the western side of the strait, while the Iranian navy oversaw the eastern section.
Iran’s command of the passage remains one of the main stumbling blocks in talks with the United States, which have yet to yield a breakthrough.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, said his committee had completed a plan for administering the waterway.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran intends to use this strategic position as a lever of power through strategic management of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, according to state television.
Donald Trump arrived in China earlier where he will hold talks with Xi Jinping
Last month, Iranian deputy speaker of parliament Hamidreza Hajibabaei said Tehran had collected its first revenues from tolls charged to vessels crossing the strait.
The Trump administration said yesterday that senior US and Chinese officials had agreed last month that no country should be allowed to impose tolls on traffic moving through the region, seeking to underline common ground on the issue ahead of the summit.
China, which buys large volumes of Iranian oil and maintains close ties with Tehran, did not challenge that version of events.
Earlier, ship-tracking data showed a Chinese supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude had passed through the Strait of Hormuz, the third confirmed transit by a Chinese oil tanker through the channel since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.
Sources said other countries were examining shipping arrangements similar to Tehran’s agreements with Iraq and Pakistan, a move that could further cement Iran’s grip on a route through which fertilisers, petrochemicals and other bulk goods essential to global supply chains usually travel.
Vance says US making progress in Iran talks
US Vice President JD Vance said earlier he believed negotiations with Iran to end the fighting were moving forward, despite President Donald Trump’s dismissal of Tehran’s latest proposal as unacceptable.
“I think that we are making progress. The fundamental question is do we make enough progress that we satisfy the President’s red line?” Mr Vance told reporters at the White House.
“And the red line is very simple. He needs to feel confident that we put a number of protections in place such that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
With the financial toll of the war rising, Mr Trump said Americans’ economic hardship had no bearing on his approach to the conflict with Iran.
The US Labor Department said that US consumer inflation continued to accelerate in April, with the annual rate posting its largest gain in three years.
The figures showed sharp increases in food prices, while rents and airfares also rose.
Asked by a reporter to what extent Americans’ economic pain was motivating him to strike a deal, Mr Trump said, “Not even a little bit.”
US demands include ending Iran’s nuclear programme and lifting its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz
“The only thing that matters, when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Mr Trump said before leaving the White House for his trip to China.
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me,” he added.
The comments are likely to face scrutiny from critics as cost-of-living pressures remain a leading concern for voters ahead of the November midterm elections.
Brent crude oil futures added to their gains, rising above $107 (€91.15) a barrel, as the impasse kept the Strait of Hormuz largely shut.
Read more: What does the Trump Xi summit mean for the rest of us?
US Central Command said the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was in the Arabian Sea enforcing the US blockade, where it had redirected 65 commercial vessels and disabled four others.
The Pentagon said the war has now cost $29 billion, up $4 billion from an estimate released late last month.
An official told politicians the revised figure reflected updated repair and replacement costs for equipment as well as operational spending.
Polls indicate the war is unpopular with US voters less than six months before nationwide elections that will decide whether Mr Trump’s Republican Party keeps control of Congress.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday, two out of three Americans — including one in three Republicans and almost all Democrats — believe Mr Trump has not clearly explained why the country has gone to war.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, continued to strike a defiant tone.
A report by Fars news agency quoted an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official as saying Iran had broadened its definition of the Strait of Hormuz into a zone running from the coast of the city of Jask in the east to Siri Island in the west.
In Tehran, the Guards carried out drills “centred on preparation to confront the enemy”, state TV reported.
