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Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-898101#google_vignette
Iran Regime Attacks Own Economic Lifeline in UAE
(Jerusalem Post) Danielle Greyman-Kennard - The United Arab Emirates has served as a major trading partner for Iran and is one of Iran's principal sanctions-evasion hubs, Arman Mahmoudian, a research associate at the University of South Florida's Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies, told the Jerusalem Post on Monday. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned numerous UAE-based companies and financial institutions for facilitating Iranian petroleum and petrochemical exports, and helping Tehran evade international sanctions. Dr. Kristian Alexander, lead researcher at the Emirates-based Rabdan Security and Defense Institute, said Iran's "heavy strikes against UAE infrastructure risk undermining one of Tehran's own economic escape valves." Mahmoudian suggested that Tehran saw the attacks on its neighbors as necessary, understanding that it had a greater chance of defeating the U.S. with economic coercion than with military warfare. "By attacking economic targets in the region, Iran was trying to increase pressure on energy markets and energy prices."