Reuters: The president of the United Arab Emirates has said his nation was in a time of war but was well and told his enemies it was no easy prey, in his first public comments since Iran launched missiles at its Gulf neighbour amid US-Israeli strikes.”The UAE has thick skin and bitter flesh — we are no easy prey,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also ruler of Abu Dhabi, said in comments, made on Friday when visiting those injured in strikes, aired on Abu Dhabi TV on Saturday.”We will carry out our duty towards our country, our people, and our residents who are also part of our family,” he said.The UAE “is in a period of war”, President Al Nahyan said, emphasising that “we will emerge stronger”.
The UAE, which consists of seven emirates including Dubai, would protect everyone in the country, he said. Separately, an Emirati official said that the UAE wanted the Iranian aggression against non-combatant states, the Gulf states, to end immediately.” Any sort of escalation is worrying. We want to contain the war. We don’t want the war to expand. We want to start with the Iranians realising that they are not helping themselves by attacking their whole neighbourhood and to stop there and realise that,” the official said.Earlier today, the country’s defence ministry said that it intercepted 15 ballistic missiles and 119 drones as Iran kept up its attacks on its Gulf neighbour.
“Today UAE air defence systems detected 16 ballistic missiles, of which, 15 were intercepted and destroyed, while one ballistic missile fell into the sea,” the defence ministry said in a post on X.”Air defence systems also detected 121 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), of which 119 were intercepted, while two fell within the territory of the UAE.”The ministry stated that a total of 1,305 Iranian UAVs have been detected so far, of which 1,229 were intercepted, while 76 UAVs fell within the territory of the UAE.
Eight cruise missiles were also detected and destroyed.These attacks, it added, resulted in the death of three, including a Pakistani, Nepali and Bangladeshi national, while injuring 112 people of various nationalities
