Donald Trump’s two-week ceasefire with Iran brought a sense of relief to the streets of Dubai on Wednesday, its stock market soaring and thoroughfares busier than during the last six weeks of the Islamic republic’s daily missile barrages.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president, sought to claim that the United Arab Emirates had emerged triumphant from a war it had tried to avoid, “safeguarding sovereignty” against “brutal aggression”.
But, despite hopes that the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz could ease Iran’s chokehold on oil and gas exports and halt further escalatory attacks on infrastructure, there will be wariness about what comes next.