Iran president Raisi invites UAE's MBZ to visit Tehran

DUBAI — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi invited UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to visit his country on Wednesday. The invite came a day after Iran conducted a naval drill on Abu Musa Island, one of three islands disputed with the Emirates.

UAE Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Almarar received the formal invitation from Raisi on behalf of Sheikh Mohamed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abu Dhabi, according to state-owned Emirates News Agency (WAM). No date has been set for the visit but if it happens it would be a first for the UAE leader.

Despite the drills, ties between Iran and the UAE have slightly improved over the past year. In June, Sheikh Mohamed met with Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Abu Dhabi to discuss bilateral relations and developments to improve prosperity and political stability in the region, reported WAM. Later the same day, the two countries announced an air-transportation agreement to increase trade and tourism opportunities between them, the government news agency added.

The Emirates has pivoted east in its foreign policy since the Saudi-Iran deal brokered by China was reached in March. Last Saturday, China announced first military drills ever with the UAE to take place this month in Xinjiang. MBZ has also visited Turkey and Russia in the last two months. 

The UAE downgraded its ties with Iran in January of 2016, following Saudi Arabia. Riyadh severed ties with the country after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran following the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia. Relations soured further between Abu Dhabi and Tehran with a series of suspected Iranian drone attacks on tankers off the UAE coast in 2019. 

But in 2020, UAE-Iran ties picked up again with high-level national security meetings and diplomacy. 

UAE ambassador to Iran Saif Mohammed Al-Zaabi resumed duties at his country's embassy in Iran in August 2022 after more than six years of absence. Then in April of this year, Iran appointed Reza Ameri as its first ambassador to the UAE in nearly eight years.

Iran exported more than $2.2 billion worth of non-oil products to the UAE from March to July of 2022, Tehran Times reported at the time. The UAE was Iran’s third-largest export destination during that period.

There is an estimated Iranian expatriate community of some 500,000 people in the UAE, according to various informal sources, as official numbers have not been made available.