The UAE foreign minister on Friday claimed that Iran is violating both the “letter and spirit” of the 2015 nuclear deal.

“It (Iran) continues to develop its nuclear program and violates the letter and spirit of that agreement,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan told the UN General Assembly.

So far even President Donald Trump and his close aides who have voiced the strongest opposition to the nuclear deal have not said that Iran has violated the letter of the nuclear deal. They have just wrongly argued that Iran has breached the spirit of the agreement. 

Also through his remarks that Iran “continues to develop its nuclear program”, the UAE foreign minister proved that he has not even bothered to read the text of the nuclear deal, because according to the agreement - officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - Iran just agreed to put limits on its nuclear activities and not stop them. 

He also said there is “no sign of change” in what he called Iran’s “hostile behavior”. 

There are certain reasons why Abdullah bin Zayed made such claims. Most probably the chief reason is that the United Arab Emirates, like his big brother Saudi Arabia, wants to buy more and more sophisticated weaponry from the United States. To justify spending more on weapons, which Donald Trump has called “beautiful arms”, the UAE may feel it needs to demonize Iran. 

The other main reason is that the UAE has realized that its participation in the Saudi-led war on Yemen has ended in failure and wrongly, like Saudi Arabia, thinks that Iran is responsible for the fiasco. 

The other motive for such highly unexpected remarks is that Iran has emerged as a key force against terrorism and turned into an influential player in the Syrian politics by succeeding, along with Russia and Turkey, to bring the Syrian warring sides to the negotiating table, which have so far produced tangible progresses.

The UAE and other accomplices in the Yemen war are better not to blame Iran for their failures. They should look at the facts and not deceive themselves. If they had been wise enough they would not have started war against Yemen. Even their master, the United States, has failed to defeat the Afghan Taliban after 16 years. Even years before the U.S. war on the Taliban, the Soviet Army was forced to leave Afghanistan without achieving its aims. So how could the UAE and Saudi Arabia which their powers are in no way comparable to the U.S. and the Soviet Union defeat Yemen.

To please the United States, Abdullah bin Zayed does not need to demonize Iran through unfounded and ignorant remarks. His country can just go and buy more beautiful arms.