The U.S. ambassador of the United Arab Emirates said that the short-term costs of a strike would outweigh the long-term benefits.A reporter at the Washington Times quoted the ambassador, Yousef Al-Otaiba, as saying that ‘There will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what.’
The ambassador was describing the likely immediate outcome of a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
This comes as negotiations between Iran and the West have stalled in recent months. Iran has said it will not consider entering talks again until at least the end of August in response to the new round of sanctions.
President Ahmadinejad has said that Iran will retaliate against any attempt to search ships sailing from its ports. The searches would occur if enforcing nations suspected the ships to be carrying items barred by the sanctions.
The dispute between the West and Iran comes over Western fears that Iran’s enrichment program would be used to make a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists the program is only for research and fuel.
