DUBAI/ABU DHABI ¨C For decades, Dubai¡¯s sales pitch has featured gleaming skylines, tax-free salaries, ease of doing business and something far more intangible: the unspoken promise that whatever was happening elsewhere in the Middle East, this city was different. The conflicts that destabilized the region would somehow stop at Dubai¡¯s borders.
On Saturday, that all changed. Iran¡¯s retaliatory strikes across the Gulf hit across Dubai¡¯s key sectors, landing on airports, hotels and ports. They also hit the psychological foundations of a city that had spent four decades constructing that identity as one of the world¡¯s most reliable places to do business in an unreliable neighborhood.
Authorities in the UAE, a close U.S. ally, moved quickly to contain the damage to confidence as much as the physical fallout. The UAE¡¯s National Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Management Authority said the situation remained under control.
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