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In a dramatic reversal of its long-held hardline stance toward Iran, the United Arab Emirates has reached a landmark agreement that includes billions of dollars in payments to Tehran in exchange for a permanent halt to Iranian attacks on Emirati territory, multiple international news outlets have reported. The development marks one of the most significant geopolitical realignments in the Persian Gulf in recent years, reshaping long-standing regional power dynamics in the wake of the US-led conflict against Iran.

Details of the agreement remain fragmented across multiple anonymous sources, but the core framework has been confirmed by reporting from Reuters, Bloomberg, and Middle East Eye. According to two regional insiders cited by Reuters, the UAE has already transferred $3 billion to Iran as an initial installment, with the total value of the deal projected to reach as high as $10 billion. Two other anonymous sources, however, put the eventual total payout at $20 billion. It remains unclear whether the funds were drawn from frozen Iranian assets held in Emirati financial institutions or from the UAE’s own sovereign wealth funds, a question Reuters did not pursue in its initial reporting.

The shift comes after years of the UAE positioning itself as one of Iran’s most vocal critics in the Gulf. Abu Dhabi once led regional lobbying efforts in Washington to push for continued aggressive US policy toward the Islamic Republic, and joined the US and Israel in launching dozens of strikes against Iranian targets during the recent regional war. It even took punitive measures against Pakistan when Islamabad hosted mediation talks aimed at ending the conflict, calling in outstanding debt obligations that forced Saudi Arabia to step in with a new emergency loan to stabilize Pakistan’s economy.

In recent weeks, however, the rapid reversal of this policy has been impossible to ignore. Just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a high-profile wartime visit to Abu Dhabi that resulted in a new joint defense acquisition deal between the two countries, the UAE’s powerful national security adviser and Abu Dhabi Deputy Ruler Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan hosted senior officials from Iran’s US-sanctioned Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at his private guest house. This meeting was followed by a new round of face-to-face diplomatic talks between Emirati envoys and senior Iranian leaders this week, held to further de-escalate cross-border tensions, Bloomberg confirmed. A Gulf diplomat told Middle East Eye that the discussions were aimed explicitly at securing guarantees that the UAE would not be targeted in Iranian retaliatory attacks.

The new arrangement has already played out in regional security dynamics: as Iran has launched retaliatory strikes against smaller Gulf states including Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan in recent weeks amid a fragile US-Iran ceasefire, the UAE has faced no attacks, and has refrained from joining new strikes against Iran. Analysts say the deal signals that Iran has emerged from the recent conflict in a strengthened regional position, despite coordinated pressure from the US, Israel, and Gulf allies.

For decades, the UAE has served as a key financial and trade hub for Iran, with deep economic ties that have often outlasted periods of geopolitical tension. Iranians hold major stakes in the UAE’s lucrative real estate sector, and even after the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran, when Abu Dhabi publicly considered freezing billions of dollars in Iranian-linked assets, it never followed through with a public implementation of that threat. Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, chief executive of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, noted on social media platform X that the agreement is likely the first step toward revitalizing these cross-border economic bonds. “Everyone needs to remember that the UAE is Iran’s most important trading partner. By ‘releasing’ funds to Iran, the UAE ensures those funds will be spent in the Emirates,” Batmanghelidj wrote. “Both countries will double down on economic interdependence and the multiplier effects of bilateral trade.”

The deal also carries implications for US diplomacy in the region. One source told Reuters that the arrangement allows Iran to secure the financial concessions it demanded for a ceasefire, while enabling the Trump administration to publicly claim it did not directly pay Iran for the agreement. A former US intelligence official told Middle East Eye that it is nearly impossible that Washington was unaware of the IRGC meeting hosted by Sheikh Tahnoun, given the extensive US intelligence footprint in the Gulf. The shift in UAE-Iran ties comes as the US and Iran are on the verge of finalizing a 60-day memorandum of understanding to negotiate over security in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program.

The Reuters report follows a similar recent development reported by the Washington Post, which claimed Qatar agreed to shut down its Ras Laffan refinery in exchange for Iran halting attacks on Qatari territory. Qatar has since denied any such coordination with Tehran.

In a series of public remarks delivered Friday, senior United States government officials have confirmed that the US Navy is carrying out nightly escort missions for dozens of commercial tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, moving millions of barrels of crude oil through the critical chokepoint amid an ongoing regional conflict that has disrupted global energy supplies.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the Bloomberg Energy Security Executive Briefing held in Houston, Texas on Friday that tankers under American protection currently carry approximately seven million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz each day. That volume accounts for roughly half of the total daily traffic that passed through the waterway before the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran began on February 28. Wright noted that current shipping volumes are continuing to climb, closing the gap left by the post-conflict blockade.

“Flows today are approaching half of the gap, and they’re rising,” Wright told attendees at the briefing.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum echoed Wright’s confirmation in an interview with CNBC Friday, adding that the operation escorts up to 20 vessels through the strait each night, with some nights seeing more than 20 commercial ships pass through under US protection. Burgum emphasized that the operations have already moved large volumes of crude out of the Gulf, and that global energy markets have already priced in this recovery ahead of mainstream media coverage.

“Some nights, more than 20 ships [are] coming out,” Burgum said. “Substantial amounts of oil have come out of the strait. I think the markets figured that out before some of the tabloid press did, because you’re starting to see a softening of oil prices.”

The confirmation comes after US President Donald Trump earlier this week claimed that the US had been carrying out secret escort operations for commercial vessels leaving the Gulf. Trump claimed that the operations have already allowed more than 200 commercial ships and 100 million barrels of oil to bypass Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

As ceasefire negotiations between Washington and Tehran continue, it remains unclear whether Iran has implicitly approved the ongoing escort operations. Earlier this week, an American Apache attack helicopter operating in the waterway was shot down, according to US media, which linked the aircraft to the escort mission. Iranian officials have downplayed the severity of the incident, offering few details on the encounter.

Global oil markets saw extreme volatility after the US and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran, with international benchmark Brent crude spiking to $112 per barrel in the immediate weeks after the conflict began. Energy analysts have long noted that public exchange prices have not fully reflected the actual premiums paid for physical crude cargoes, particularly in Asia, a region that relies heavily on crude exports from Gulf producing states.

Many market analysts predicted even steeper price spikes after Iran seized control of the Strait of Hormuz and imposed a blockade on energy shipments from neighboring Gulf states. In response, the US implemented its own counter-blockade that removed Iranian crude barrels already under international sanctions from global markets.

Global oil markets stabilized after a series of policy interventions: Western nations released 400 million barrels of crude from their strategic emergency reserves, while China made an unprecedented cut to its crude import volumes to reduce demand. China’s May crude imports fell roughly three million barrels per day compared to year-ago levels, according to trade data.

Neither Burgum nor Wright offered a clear timeline for how long the nightly escort operations will continue. But the operations have already coincided with a steady downward trend in global oil prices this month. Brent crude, the global benchmark, has fallen roughly 20 percent over the past 30 days. On Friday, the benchmark traded 3.5 percent lower at $87.17 per barrel, as both Iran and the US publicly signaled that a new ceasefire agreement is within reach.