The United Arab Emirates has faced additional Iranian drone and missile strikes since the U.S. and Israel launched a military operation targeting Tehran’s political leadership and military infrastructure in February.

Despite warnings from Iran that it faced “dangerous consequences” if it didn’t break its ties with the U.S. and Israel, the UAE has strengthened its alliances with Tehran’s main adversaries.

Within hours of that threat Wednesday, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The New York Times reported Friday.

Netanyahu expressed solidarity with the Gulf nation after it reported a renewed Iranian missile and drone assault earlier in the week.

The call with Netanyahu was among the signs that, in the face of Iran’s attacks, the UAE strengthened its alliances with Israel and the United States, the Times reported. That came even as President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials appeared to downplay the attacks on the UAE during a monthlong ceasefire.

“There is a trust premium that Trump will do the right thing,” Nadim Koteich, an Emirati-Lebanese commentator who is close to the UAE government, told the Times. “What suits his legacy and what suits the American interests suits us.”

It is not clear why the UAE is in Iran’s crosshairs more than its Gulf neighbors, given that U.S. military personnel and bases are distributed across the region. Dubai is less than 100 miles from Iran’s shores, meaning it can be hit with shorter-range munitions than other countries.

It is an “epicenter of globalization,” Koteich said, meaning the economic impact of striking the Emirates reverberates more broadly than attacks on other Gulf countries, such as Kuwait or Bahrain.

Iranian officials have also repeatedly criticized the Emirates over its close ties to Israel, which it first established in 2020 by signing on to the Abraham Accords.

That partnership has grown stronger during the conflict. Israel deployed its Iron Dome missile-defense system in the Emirates, two people familiar with the move told the Times.

“These six weeks were like steroids for the relationship,” Koteich said. “They showed up when they had to show up.”

The conflict has led the UAE to reassess its relationships in the region.

Emirati officials and analysts have complained that Arab neighbors have shown insufficient sympathy and solidarity, and that Pakistan, which is mediating between the U.S. and Iran, has been too willing to accommodate Iran’s positions.

“The longer this is going on, the more time they’ve had to reflect on their place in the world and their place in the Gulf, who’s a friend and who’s not,” Barbara Leaf, U.S. ambassador to the UAE in the Biden administration, told the Times. “They are looking at things in pretty stark black-and-white terms, of friend or foe.”

The UAE’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has been strained for months, according to the Times. Last month, the UAE announced it was leaving OPEC, the oil-producing group long dominated by Saudi Arabia.

Officials said the move would allow the UAE to increase oil production independently and meet the market’s long-term needs, but it was also a demonstration that the UAE is increasingly charting its own course.

Analysts told the Times the conviction among UAE officials is that they must stick closely to the United States.

“The U.S. has been there for us,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati political scientist, told the Times.

Without U.S. systems such as Patriot missiles to shoot down Iranian projectiles, “we would not have been able to defend ourselves,” he said. “The relationship with the U.S. is an essential pillar for our stability.”