Two UAE military personnel killed

Emirate slams 'unwarranted' Iran attacks

DUBAI/GENEVA:

Two UAE servicemen were killed on Monday after their helicopter crashed because of a "technical malfunction", the defence ministry said, as Iran keeps up its campaign in the Gulf.

"The Ministry of Defence announces the martyrdom of two members of the armed forces following the crash of a helicopter due to a technical malfunction while performing their national duty in the country on Monday," it said in a statement on X.

The United Arab Emirates decried that it was being targeted "in a very unwarranted manner" in the Middle East war, stressing it would "not partake in any attacks against Iran".

"The UAE does not seek to be drawn into conflict or escalation," said Jamal Al Musharakh, the UAE's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

"We've been very clear before and leading up to the current events we are witnessing in the region that as the UAE we will not partake in any attacks against Iran from our territory, and that we will not be involved in such a conflict," he told the UN correspondents' association ACANU.

"Our bases are not being used to attack Iran."

Musharakh said the UAE was calling for a return to the negotiating table.

The United States and Iran held a third round of indirect talks through Omani negotiators, on Iran's nuclear programme, in Geneva on February 26.

Two days later, the United States and Israel launched the first wave of attacks in a war that has seen Iran strike targets in multiple countries around the Gulf, including in the UAE.

"We were one of the countries that constantly called for the need for a negotiation, the need for diplomacy, the need for de-escalation," Musharakh said.

"And we have constantly informed that our territories would not be used for any attacks against Iran. Yet we are being targeted, frankly, in a very unwarranted manner."

He said the UAE had been subjected to more than 1,400 attacks since the conflict began -- including attacks with cruise and ballistic missiles, and drones -- of which "the vast majority were intercepted and neutralised" by the country's armed forces.

He said the "unprovoked targeting" of civilian infrastructure such as desalination and energy plants, was "unacceptable".

"Tragically, these attacks have resulted in four civilian fatalities, as well as 114 minor injuries," the ambassador said.