Amid Iran War and Tensions with Neighbors, U.A.E. Goes Its Own Way

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Amid Iran War and Tensions with Neighbors, U.A.E. Goes Its Own Way

The United Arab Emirates’ decision to leave OPEC has rocked the region, underscoring how the country, at odds with Saudi Arabia, is increasingly charting its own course.

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Smoke billowing from an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, in March.

Credit...

Altaf Qadri/Associated Press

By

Vivian Nereim

and

Ismaeel Naar

Vivian Nereim reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Ismaeel Naar reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

April 28, 2026

Updated

3:52 p.m. ET

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As Saudi Arabia prepared to host a summit of Gulf Arab leaders on Tuesday, political commentators in the neighboring United Arab Emirates began furiously dropping hints online that major news was coming.

For weeks, Emirati officials had been openly expressing frustration with their Arab neighbors, complaining about their weak stance toward Iran, which had fired thousands of missiles and drones at Gulf countries in response to U.S. and Israeli bombing. Analysts wondered if the Emirates would demonstrate that displeasure at the summit.

Then, just as the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, commenced the meeting, the Emirati government dropped a bombshell from hundreds of miles away: it announced that it was leaving OPEC, a cartel of oil-producing countries that wields sway over global energy prices.

Emirati officials said they were doing so in order to unilaterally increase their oil production and meet the market’s long-term needs, but the fact that OPEC’s de facto leader is Saudi Arabia was lost on no one in the region.

Whether the timing of the announcement was intentional or coincidental, it was a potent symbol of the recent, tectonic shifts reshaping the Middle East, which have only accelerated during the war. By pulling away from OPEC, the Emirati government demonstrated that is willing to make dramatic moves in its own interests, and will not be constrained by traditional alliances and conventions.

“It is an Emirati declaration of independence,” said Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a research organization. “They no longer feel beholden to institutions that don’t align with their interests.”

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