The Al-Azhar institution has released multiple statements condemning Iran’s strikes on the UAE
News Desk - The Cradle
“At the outset of the current war, state agencies demanded that Al-Azhar align unambiguously with Gulf states and avoid any mention of US and Israeli strikes,” according to sources close to Al-Azhar.
“It was stated plainly and directly by the presidential institution that there are major interests with the Gulf and the US that we cannot sacrifice under the current economic conditions, that what happened over Gaza cannot be repeated, and that Al-Azhar would bear the blame for the Egyptians who lose their jobs in the Gulf if it takes a contrary position,” another source said.
Egyptian authorities used the same tactic with Al-Azhar during the Gaza genocide, according to previous MEE reports.
Cairo reportedly tried to force Al-Azhar to withdraw a statement urging international action on the Israeli-imposed famine that spread across the strip during the genocidal war.
“Then the state threatened to blame the institution for derailing a ceasefire and blocking the entry of aid,” the sources said.
The MEE report also reveals the UAE's anger with Al-Azhar’s stance during the June 2025 war.
At the time, Al-Azhar described the 12-day war as an “aggression of the occupying entity against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
MEE’s sources said that the “earlier stance had angered the UAE,” even though it was not targeted by Iranian operations during that war.
After the US-Israeli war against Iran was launched earlier this year and Tehran began its retaliatory strikes on Washington’s assets in the Gulf, Al-Azhar condemned the Islamic Republic’s operations in multiple statements, although it did not name Iran specifically in its first statement.
The latest statement in early May referred to recent strikes by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the UAE as “the aggression of the Islamic Republic of Iran against its Muslim neighbor.”
The UAE and Saudi Arabia both opened up their air bases to US jets for attacks on Iran throughout the war. Israel also deployed an Iron Dome system to the UAE, along with a crew to operate it.
According to new western media reports, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia carried out their own military strikes against the Islamic Republic.
Bloomberg said on 15 May that Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, refused Emirati requests to launch a coordinated Arab attack against Iran.
However, Tehran has demanded compensation from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, and Jordan – charging them all with facilitating US-Israeli strikes against it.
Since the 2020 Abraham Accords, Israel and the UAE have dramatically accelerated cooperation in security, trade, and other fields.
The Gulf state has purchased billions-worth of Israeli weapons. The two states have also cooperated for years on the establishment of a network of military-intelligence sites across the islands surrounding Yemen.
MEE cited US officials as saying this week that Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi have set up a fund for the joint acquisition and development of new weapons systems.
“The agreement was cemented when [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu visited the UAE during the US-Israeli war on Iran,” one of the officials told MEE.
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