UAE President, Iran National Security Secretary Discuss Issues of Common Interest

President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan meets with Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, March 16, 2023. (WAM)
President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan meets with Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, March 16, 2023. (WAM)
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UAE President, Iran National Security Secretary Discuss Issues of Common Interest

President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan meets with Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, March 16, 2023. (WAM)
President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan meets with Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, March 16, 2023. (WAM)

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received in Abi Dhabi on Thursday Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani.

Discussions focused on bilateral relations and ways to bolster cooperation between their countries in various fields to achieve common interests.

The officials also discussed regional and international developments of interest and the importance of supporting peace and cooperation in the region to meet the aspirations of their people for development and prosperity.

A day earlier, Shamkhani had met with UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan. They discussed bilateral relations and ways to bolster and develop them to achieve mutual interests, especially in political, economic and trade fields.

They tackled several issues of common interest and underscored the importance of exerting efforts to achieve regional stability and prosperity.

Shamkhani was accompanied by senior economic, security and banking officials.

Iranian media had reported that Shamkhani would visit the UAE at an official invitation from Sheikh Tahnoun.

The UAE had downgraded its relations with Iran after Saudi Arabia severed ties with Tehran in January 2016.

Shamkhani visited the UAE a week after Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore diplomatic relations.

Shamkhani told Sheikh Tahnoun that the “lack of trust in the strategic region overlooking the Gulf is preventing economic development, which is the goal of enemies from outside the region,” Iranian media quoted him as saying.

He stressed that “comprehensive, ongoing and constructive cooperation with neighbors is a firm strategy in Iran’s foreign policy,” Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported him as saying.

“Current challenges that don’t serve the interests of any country in the region should be resolved through cooperation and rapprochement, and away from disputes and animosity,” he added.

Moreover, he remarked that “disputes and lack of trust” were “serious obstacles in achieving economic development.”

“We must talk and work together and expand political, security and cultural cooperation to counter the unconstructive role of outsiders,” he added.

For his part, Sheikh Tahnoun said that “cooperation and friendship” between nations were a top priority to the UAE, IRNA reported.

On the Saudi-Iranian agreement, he told Shamkhani that it “will play a constructive role in expanding peace, stability and sustainable security in the region.”

“The development of friendly and fraternal relations between Abu Dhabi and Tehran are among the UAE’s priorities,” he stated.

Furthermore, he added that Shamkhani’s visit was a “turning point in relations” between their countries and will give “a greater push in developing their ties,” according to IRNA.

Shamkhani noted that all countries in the region “share the same fate and are members of the same large family.”

“Family disputes must be resolved through dialogue, good intentions and forgiveness so that we can create a strong and developed region,” he added.

The exchange of economic, trade and investment relations is a top priority for Tehran in establishing ties with its neighbors, he went on to say.

He said he believed that his visit to the UAE will open a new chapter in political, security and economic relations between their countries.

Later on Thursday, Iranian deputy foreign minister for political affairs Ali Bagheri Kani revealed that his country will soon reinstate its ambassador to the UAE.

Arrangements to dispatch the envoy to the UAE have kicked off, Iranian media quoted him as saying.

Relations between Iran and the UAE “were never severed”, rather they were simply downgraded, he remarked.



Trump Envoy Arrives in Kyiv as US Pledges Patriot Missiles to Ukraine

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
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Trump Envoy Arrives in Kyiv as US Pledges Patriot Missiles to Ukraine

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

US President Donald Trump´s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, arrived in Kyiv on Monday, a senior Ukrainian official said, as anticipation grew over a possible shift in the Trump administration´s policy on the more than three-year war.

Trump last week teased that he would make a "major statement" on Russia on Monday. Trump made quickly stopping the war one of his diplomatic priorities, and he has increasingly expressed frustration about Russian President Vladimir Putin´s unbudging stance on US-led peace efforts.

Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and after taking office in January repeatedly said that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. At the same time, Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a "dictator without elections”, AFP said.

But Russia´s relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump´s patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to "STOP!" launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader " has gone absolutely CRAZY!" as the bombardments continued.

"I am very disappointed with President Putin, I thought he was somebody that meant what he said," Trump said late Sunday. "He´ll talk so beautifully and then he´ll bomb people at night. We don´t like that."

Trump confirmed the US is sending Ukraine badly needed US-made Patriot air defense missiles to help it fend off Russia´s intensifying aerial attacks.

Trump said that the European Union will pay the US for the "various pieces of very sophisticated" weaponry it is sending.

However, the EU is not allowed under its treaties to buy weapons. EU member countries are buying and sending weapons to Ukraine, just as NATO member countries are buying and sending weapons. EU countries set up the European Peace Facility so that countries which supply arms to Ukraine could be refunded to backfill their own stocks.

Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine's air defenses are struggling to counter. June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine said Thursday. Russia launched 10 times more drones and missiles in June than in the same month last year, it said.

That has happened at the same time as Russia's bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict is nearing an inflection point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight back against Russia's full-scale invasion. It´s a cause that Trump had previously dismissed as being a waste of US taxpayer money.

"In the coming days, you´ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves," Graham said on CBS´ "Face the Nation." He added: "One of the biggest miscalculations (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has made is to play Trump. And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there´s going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table."

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin´s envoy for international investment, dismissed what he said were efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington.

"Constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States is more effective than doomed-to-fail attempts at pressure," Dmitriev said in a post on Telegram. "This dialogue will continue, despite titanic efforts to disrupt it by all possible means."

"Equal dialogue, mutual respect, realism and economic cooperation are the foundations of global security," he added, echoing comments by Putin.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was due in Washington on Monday and Tuesday. He planned to hold talks with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as members of Congress.

Talks during Kellogg´s visit to Kyiv will cover "defense, strengthening security, weapons, sanctions, protection of our people and enhancing cooperation between Ukraine and the United States," said the head of Ukraine´s presidential office, Andrii Yermak.

"Russia does not want a cease fire. Peace through strength is President Donald Trump´s principle, and we support this approach," Yermak said.

Russian troops conducted a combined aerial strike at Shostka, in the northern Sumy region of Ukraine, using glide bombs and drones early Monday morning, killing two people, the regional prosecutor´s office said. Four others were injured, including a 7-year-old, it said.

Overnight from Sunday to Monday, Russia fired four S-300/400 missiles and 136 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine, the air force said. It said that 61 drones were intercepted and 47 more were either jammed or lost from radars mid-flight.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defenses downed 11 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions on the border with Ukraine, as well as over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.