The story: Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has said that Abu Dhabi is “in the process of sending an ambassador to Tehran.” Informed Iranian sources have confirmed to Amwaj.media that there is movement towards a normalization of diplomatic ties after six years. However, no Iranian state visit is on the agenda in the absence of an “official invitation,” and without ambassadors in place. The shift comes against the backdrop of the US president’s attendance of the recent Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, and the Arab-Israeli initiative to counter Iranian drones and missiles.

The details: "Our conversation is ongoing,” Gargash stated at a July 15 briefing, elaborating that while the UAE is mulling the normalization of diplomatic ties with Iran, it has “constant concern about Iranian regional policies.”

• Gargash described Iran as a “neighbor” that Abu Dhabi seeks engagement with, emphasizing “complete conviction that the way is not confrontation, because confrontation will complicate the regional scene as a whole.”
  
  
• While dismissing an “Arab NATO” as little beyond a “theoretical” concept, Gargash said the UAE can be part of arrangements to counter “drones and missiles” which are not targeted at a third country, in a thinly veiled reference to Iran.

The UAE downgraded diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016. The move came in solidarity with Saudi Arabia, which cut relations with the Islamic Republic after Iranian protesters ransacked its diplomatic facilities over the execution of a Saudi Shiite dissident cleric...