‘Angry, horrified and mystified’: Dubai hit with retaliatory strikes following US-Israeli attacks on Iran

So it’s been a very, very quiet day. The stock market is closed today and tomorrow. Schools are in online mode. Most businesses have been told to stay home. I’m in the financial district on the 42nd floor, overlooking literally the entire city from here.

Roads are very light. The streets are pretty well empty. People are sheltering in place. I went out early this morning with our team throughout the city, talking with people, talking with expats, talking with people who live here, born and raised here, and just about their feelings and they’re just very, very grateful to the defense systems that are working.

Here’s some of the numbers: for example, 708 projectiles were shot at the UAE, 152 ballistic missiles destroyed. Both of the cruise missiles destroyed, 506 drones intercepted, 35 falling on various UAE territories. So they don’t have the Iron Dome the Israelis have, but they have an incredible defense system and mechanism where they are up and flying overhead and intercepting.

And the people here are very, very grateful, appreciative and in admiration of the defense ministry. So we are in day three and we are all watching everything happening and talking with the people in the streets.

They’re in shock that, as close as they are in the proximity to Iran, that Iran would actually attack Dubai because there are no military bases here, that’s in the Abu Dhabi region. And they are angry, horrified and mystified as to, ‘Why attack us?’

So those are questions for tomorrow, but that’s why they’re mystified about that and obviously not knowing what could be tossed at them next. But they are obviously very, very confident in the defense system to protect them.

Yeah, so that was yesterday. We went to the hotel. We got pretty close before security shooed us away. We saw the debris that landed on the hotel on the portico on the right side, which caused it to go up into flames. The emergency services came immediately and put that out.

We also saw two other hotels that took on debris, created a fire, but once again, they put that out pretty fast. And then we were at the airport on two occasions before, obviously, the airport is totally shut down, airspace shut down, and that was in terminal three at the Dubai Airport that, unfortunately, somebody was killed in that and four others were hurt. And that was also massive debris landing on the tarmac into the terminal. But none of these were direct hits.

Well, what they’re trying to say, and keep their people calm, is that the UAE is not firing back. The UAE is on a defensive mode. So while you might be hearing some posture from some of the other Gulf nations, the UAE has made it clear that they’re just in a defensive mode and trying to back channel into the Iranians, to not fire this way, that it’s not going to help our relations going forward, recalling ambassadors and having back channels.

Obviously, you’ve been hearing the president saying this is going to last for a number of weeks. So the folks at the UAE, the expats, the visitors, the 20,000 or so that are here just trying to pass through the airport that are now holed up in hotels, are hearing that and don’t know really what to make of that in terms of, ‘Is it really true?,’ or could cooler heads prevail in certain cases and be able to allow the airports to open.

The key thing here is, for my conversations with the ministry, is none of these countries want to be the first to open up their airports, the planes take off and something bad happens. So that’s why everything is day-to-day, caution-to-caution. The airports are shut down today. They’ve said possibly tomorrow afternoon, but it’s almost like an hour-by-hour situation.

I have an incredible view that I could see for miles, and obviously, I can see historic postcard-like buildings that everybody knows about. But I also see and I hear, and I heard that this morning, I heard it yesterday, the F-16s flying overhead.

They are making themselves very known and they are out and they are looking, and it’s working in terms of any types of sustained damage. So you’re nervous and for the most part, as you said, I’ve been here since last Wednesday, you’re nervous, you’re cautious, you’ve got to keep your eyes open.

But at the same time, they have a wonderful system that they’re giving you as much notice as they’ve got if something is heading in your direction to be able to get to shelter.