“The UAE and the Widening Gulf Conflict: What Happens Next?” — 9 September, National Liberal Club, London. Join senior figures from policy, diplomacy, media and business for a frank discussion on the UAE’s resilience, its diplomatic balancing act, and its relationship with Britain amid the widening Gulf conflict. Register free →
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What you need to know
Iran fired missiles and drones at US-linked sites in Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait early Wednesday, retaliating for American strikes Iranian state media say killed four to five people, including a child at a wedding in Hormozgan province; CENTCOM says it is aware of the reports.
Brent settled at $94.65 on Tuesday, a five-week high, up $4.16 or 4.6% on the day, and touched above $95 intraday Wednesday.
The G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Asheville ended without a joint communique after China blocked consensus, leaving the US to issue a chair’s statement instead.
Abu Dhabi’s Microsoft-backed AI firm G42 is exploring a multibillion-dollar capital raise, part of a wider shift toward Abu Dhabi importing external capital rather than only exporting it.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid announced a Cabinet-approved programme to train 22,000 teachers in AI tools and roll out an AI curriculum across all UAE schools, with a mechanism to share it globally.
Morning. Steve Moore here.
There is something almost admirable about a week that manages to be simultaneously terrifying and completely normal. Missiles land on four countries before breakfast; Dubai’s property market has its best trading day of the month by lunchtime. Brent is up nearly five dollars because men in fatigues are shooting at each other over a strait, and somewhere in Abu Dhabi a spreadsheet is being updated to reflect that this, actually, is rather good for the budget. Nobody has quite worked out whether to be alarmed or unbothered, so everyone is doing both at once, which might be the most honestly Gulf response available.
Iran Strikes Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait as War Widens to Four Countries
Iran fired missiles and drones at US-linked sites in Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait early Wednesday, following a night of American bombardment that Iranian state media say killed four to five people, including a child at a wedding ceremony near Sirik in Hormozgan province. CENTCOM has said it is “aware of” the Iranian state-media reports, though it has not confirmed the casualty claims. The exchange ends a roughly month-long lull and puts the UAE, which intercepted an Iranian drone of its own on Monday, squarely inside a widening war footprint with knock-on consequences for shipping, oil pricing, and effectively every other story in this week’s edition.
This is now the second consecutive day of open combat, a marked escalation from the single-drone episode we reported on Monday, and it raises the obvious question of whether Thursday brings a further US or Israeli response, or whether any munition reaches UAE airspace or waters again.
Brent Hits Five-Week High as Hormuz Risk Premium Jumps
Brent crude futures settled at $94.65 on Tuesday, a five-week high, after jumping $4.16, or 4.6%, on the renewed fighting; WTI rose $4.46, or 5.2%, to $90.22. Brent traded between roughly $93.62 and $95.63 on Wednesday, with one snapshot putting it as high as $96.11. Wall Street closed sharply lower, with the S&P 500 falling 54.19 points, or 0.71%, to 7,631.95 as bond yields spiked. For the UAE, higher oil is a fiscal boost even as it signals the war premium has become sticky rather than transitory.
G20 Asheville Ends Without Communique as China Blocks Consensus
The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors ministerial in Asheville closed Tuesday without a joint communique after China refused to sign on, leaving Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to issue a chair’s statement instead. The meeting was also marked by a surprise Russian appearance and press-access restrictions. The National’s Wednesday piece argued the Gulf “should pay attention,” a rare institutional signal from an Abu Dhabi-based paper that the multilateral architecture UAE capital relies on is weakening.
DP World Presses Ahead in Syria as Iran’s Tanker Blacklist Widens
DP World is progressing its $800 million modernisation of Syria’s Port of Tartous, with three new mobile harbour cranes now arrived, dredging under way, and first-phase cargo capacity set to rise 40%. That’s happening even as Iran keeps 45 tankers, including ADNOC-owned vessels, on its Hormuz blacklist, with three Indian oil refiners and a global energy major already avoiding the listed ships. It’s a portrait of UAE trade infrastructure quietly expanding in one theatre while defending its shuttle-trade playbook in another.
G42 Weighs Multibillion-Dollar Raise as Abu Dhabi Starts Importing Capital
Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G42 has held exploratory talks with potential investors about raising billions of dollars, according to people familiar with the matter, though no final decisions have been made on deal structure or size. G42 already counts Mubadala Investment Co., Silver Lake and Microsoft among its investors, and a company spokesperson said it “remains focused on its long-term growth strategy” without confirming details.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and brother to Abu Dhabi’s ruler, oversees G42 and also chairs MGX, the AI investment vehicle that recently raised $49 billion for one of the largest AI-dedicated funds ever assembled. If G42’s raise proceeds, it would extend a pattern already visible in Mubadala Capital’s move to raise third-party capital domestically for the first time: Abu Dhabi’s roughly $2 trillion wealth-fund complex, long considered a pure exporter of capital, is starting to pull outside money in too. G42 is also building a 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi using Nvidia chips, made easier by the Trump administration’s July decision to ease export restrictions on approved UAE ventures. It’s a notable thread of continuity running through a week otherwise dominated by war coverage: Abu Dhabi’s AI ambitions are moving forward regardless of the security backdrop.
UAE to Train 22,000 Teachers in AI Tools, Export Its AI Curriculum Globally
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced via his official X account that the Cabinet reviewed a programme to train 22,000 teachers and educators to use assistive AI in teaching, assessment, curriculum analysis, lesson planning, and fostering innovation among students. “The huge technological transformations of our era will change the reality, processes, and tools of education,” he said, adding that teachers will have to become lifelong learners “because if we teach our children today using the same methods of yesterday, we are depriving them of their future.”
The Cabinet also approved rolling out an AI curriculum across all public and private schools in the UAE, building on a pilot programme the government says has already shown positive results. Sheikh Mohammed said the UAE is “among the pioneering countries in the world” to develop integrated AI curricula spanning all educational stages, and the Cabinet adopted a mechanism to share that curriculum with education ministries worldwide “so that everyone can benefit from the UAE’s experience.” The timing is telling, alongside G42’s exploratory capital raise elsewhere in today’s edition: on the same day Abu Dhabi’s AI ambitions show up in billion-dollar dealmaking, the government is also moving to embed AI capability at the classroom level, and to position the UAE as a policy exporter rather than just a technology importer.
MBZ Invites Qatari Emir to 2026 UN Water Conference
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan sent a written message to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday, inviting him to the 2026 UN Water Conference. The invitation lands with the region on war footing and serves as a reminder that Abu Dhabi is still building its UN-hosting brand around water security, one of the tracks that survives even when the geopolitics does not.
UAE Carriers Adjust Kuwait and Bahrain Routes as Clashes Resume
Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia are running scattered delays, cancellations and reroutes, particularly on Gulf routes to Kuwait and Bahrain, as US-Iran exchanges resumed overnight. The picture stays short of March’s full airspace closure, but expect continued friction into the weekend as EASA extends its Gulf conflict-zone warning.
Dubai Property Opens September With AED 2.78bn Trading Day
Dubai’s real-estate market opened September with AED 2.78 billion in total property transactions on 1 September, comprising 716 deals and AED 2.05 billion in sales. Separately, shop leasing grew 2.9%, with Naif topping volume. It’s a reminder that even with war back at the borders and oil above $94, UAE residential and retail demand keeps setting records.
Watch Tomorrow
Whether Iran’s overnight strikes trigger a US or Israeli follow-up into Iran, and whether any munition reaches UAE airspace or waters again.
Any further detail on G42’s capital raise, including deal size, structure or investor names.
Oil settlement Wednesday and Thursday, whether Brent holds above $94, and whether ADNOC or OPEC members signal any supply response.
— Steve
Steve Moore Emirates Wire · launching 9 September 2026, National Liberal Club, London emirateswire.co.uk · steve@emirateswire.co.uk
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