Name: Iran strikes Dubai airport, forcing UAE to close airspace temporarily
Uploaded: 2026-03-18T06:18:51.000Z
Duration: 5 min 57 s
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Very latest as Middle east tensions continue.

And this was just some of the many messages out in Dubai from earlier today.

Fox News is Lucas Tomlinson putting this out on X, saying about the UAE air defenses that were currently active.

And we were seeing a lot of activity the last couple of days, especially in Dubai.

For more on this, I want to go right now to Dubai.

And that is where we find FOX News's Lucas Tomlinson with a breakdown.

Lucas, tell us what do you know on the latest?

It was just a few days ago that Iran fired only a handful of drones here at the UAE, just six and about four ballistic missiles.

Iran firing 10 ballistic missiles and 45 drones at the Emirati.

They closed airspace overhead, canceled a number of flights at the airport.

Just a sign that while President Trump talks about the 7,000 targets that have been neutralized in Iran, round the clock strikes from the U.S.

air Force, U.S. navy, that Iran is still capable of packing a punch.

In Saudi Arabia, they've received dozens of drone attacks.

And what we're seeing here in the UAE is Iran is primarily targeting the oil infrastructure.

The Shah gas field in Abu Dhabi, about an hour away from where I'm standing at, that was hit today.

And the Fujairah oil complex, which is part of the overland pipeline that connects the Dubai area to the Gulf of Oman, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.

The Fujairah oil complex was hit for the third time this week.

And of course, you can't be here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and not talk about the Strait of Hormuz.

Tanker traffic has virtually ground to a halt, although it is notable, Mike, that In the last 24 hours, the 15 tankers did make it through.

We heard from President Trump over the past few days imploring NATO to send warships assets to help open up the Strait.

India today was one of the first to raise their hand saying, hey, we just got two oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

80% of this oil from the Persian Gulf actually goes to Asia.

Only 2% of the tankers that leave the Persian Gulf come to American shores.

And perhaps the Trump administration can lean on some Asian allies to do something bad in China, clearly no ally of the United States.

But you got to figure diplomacy is going on between Beijing and Tehran to get their oil out because while Iran is holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage, it feels like they want to see high gas prices back home to put pressure on the White House.

You have to wonder, how long will that last?

And that's one of the reasons we saw President Trump authorize airstrikes on Harg Island.

That's in the northern Persian Gulf, where 96% of Iran's oil is shipped from this terminal.

Many people might see that as a vulnerability, Mike, after those airstrikes did not target the oil terminals, hit military targets, you have to figure the US Military perhaps could hold Hog island hostage.

We have some dueling land masses here on the world stage.

And Lucas, did Iran think by this time already that they would have put enough pressure on the Gulf states like UAE to put more pressure on President Trump to stop this?

Because it seems like right now it's the direct opposite of what they wanted.

And that's what some have been talking about.

How much did the Trump administration anticipate these attacks on Gulf nations?

In fact, the UAE has received three times as many warheads fired from Iran here than Israel.

There's been attacks on 12 different countries in the region.

And some people are wondering, what is Iran doing?

Is this decentralized command after many of these Iranian leaders have been killed?

And would that put pressure on the White House?

The Gulf states are not putting the pressure on Washington.

They're putting the pressure on Tehran, essentially saying, what are you doing here?

Here in the uae, they've seized Iran's financial assets.

A lot of money is laundered through here, as we've seen over the years.

In fact, there's 700,000 Iranians that live here in the United Arab Emirates.

And, you know, of course, not just a financial capital, it's a tourism destination for many.

And I can tell you the hotels have been, many of them are virtually empty.

The man made island looks like a palm tree.

Those hotels were out there recently, Mike.

Some of the hotels here are down to just 7% occupancy.

So but the reaction from the Gulf states is not ire on Washington or the Trump administration.

It's on Iran saying, you know, what are you doing?

What we have seen a big success story is the Emirati air defenses.

Saudi air defenses are shooting down 90, 95% of all the incoming.

We saw a drone strike at Dubai's international airport just yesterday that grounded flights for a few hours.

And again today, early this morning, we heard the alerts on our phones.

There was this, you know, 45 drones coming from Iran.

While it was successfully intercepted, according to the Ministry of Defense, it forced airspace overhead to be closed for a number of hours and really impacted the people here on the ground.

Lucas Tomlinson, thanks so much for the updates tonight in Dubai.

You've been doing a great job with all the updates on Fox News Channel and putting all the updates on X as well.