Drone Strikes UAE Nuclear Power Plant 

A Ceasefire in Name Only

Sunday's attack did not occur in isolation. A conditional ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran on April 28 led to a halt in hostilities for several weeks, but Tehran resumed strikes on the Emirates earlier this month. On May 4–5, Iran launched a sustained two-day assault on the UAE: Emirati air defences engaged 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles, and four drones, all launched from Iran. Three Indian nationals were wounded in a fire at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone.

Iran still has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas passed before the war, while America continues to block Iranian ports in response. Negotiations to solidify the ceasefire have failed to advance.

Trump has suggested hostilities could resume. Iranian state television, meanwhile, has repeatedly aired segments showing anchors holding Kalashnikov-style rifles to prepare the public for war. In one program, a presenter received live firearms training from a masked Revolutionary Guard member before miming firing a shot at the flag of the UAE. On another channel, a female presenter declared: "From this platform, I declare that I am ready to sacrifice my life for this country."

Fighting has also heated up between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon despite a nominal ceasefire there, further straining the wider truce.

Both US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine, had said after the early-May attacks that Iran's strikes had not yet crossed the threshold justifying a resumption of full-scale warfare, a threshold that, with each new attack, grows harder to define.