this may be showing us where things are heading in the gulf, and understandably so, now that the empire has shown it can't fill its part of the protection racket it began years ago;

 

 The United Arab Emirates, which spent months lobbying Washington to wage war against Iran, which joined U.S. and Israeli forces in striking Iranian territory, and which tried to sabotage Pakistan's peace mediation efforts, has now quietly paid Tehran billions of dollars to stop bombing Emirati soil. The UAE has already delivered $3 billion to Iran as part of an agreement that two regional sources told Reuters reached as high as $10 billion, while two other sources put the eventual total at $20 billion. This is not a peace deal. This is a protection payment wrapped in the language of diplomacy, and it tells the real story of who controls the Middle East's economic destiny.

Key points:

• The UAE agreed to unlock billions of dollars for Iran following weeks of Iranian attacks on the wealthy Gulf Arab state during the U.S.-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic.
• In return for the disbursement, Iran would halt missile and drone attacks on the UAE, and there would be a rebuilding of bilateral ties, including intelligence sharing and economic cooperation.
• IRGC officials, sanctioned by the United States, were hosted at the personal guest house of the UAE's national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, signaling a depth of engagement that goes far beyond back-channel diplomacy.
• The UAE is Iran's most important trading partner, and the financial flows unleashed by this deal are virtually guaranteed to cycle back through the Emirates' own economy.
• The arrangement may be designed to allow the Trump administration to claim it did not pay Iran a ransom, while the UAE absorbs the political cost and reaps the economic reward.
• Iran has approached at least two other Gulf Arab countries to make a similar arrangement, suggesting a broader regional protection racket may be taking shape.........more........