On the first night of the war, February 28, missiles streaked across the sky above Palm Jumeirah, intercepted in bursts of light as residents in beach clubs stood frozen at their windows, cocktails in hand, watching the spectacle. By morning, smoke was rising from the Burj Al Arab and from Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest transit hubs.

According to The Times, Iran launched more than 500 missiles and over 2,000 drones at civilian and military targets in the UAE from that first night onward. The assault was at once retaliation, strategy, and message.

This war is not merely about missiles over Dubai or drones over the Gulf. It reflects the accelerating strain on a Western-led order that once claimed to shape global politics through alliances and rules. Donald Trump did not create this shift alone, but his policies accelerated it - weakening alliances, politicising trade, and eroding the coalitions Washington later needed.

For four decades, Dubai built a most modern infrastructure that was envied by many countries of the world, and it carefully insulated itself from regional turmoil. That illusion collapsed in a single night. The war it had spent years avoiding, arrived at its most iconic landmarks.

The roots of the crisis lie not only in Tehran but in Washington’s strategic drift. Trump repeatedly questioned the value of NATO, strained relations with the European Union through tariff wars, and extended those confrontations globally. By the time the United States needed allied cohesion, the foundations of collective action had already weakened.

The joint US–Israeli strike on Iran, launched under Operation Epic Fury, was meant to compel Iranian capitulation. Instead, it produced the opposite effect. Rather than isolating Iran, the operation has fuelled a narrative across much of the global south that Washington and Tel Aviv initiated a war without clear political objectives and in clear defiance of international law.

For the first time, Israel joined a superpower in striking a Persian state with significant strategic depth. Yet unlike earlier Arab–Israeli wars, where Israel translated military victories into territorial gains, this conflict has yielded no such outcome. Instead, it has generated........

© The Friday Times