A renewed escalation in the Strait of Hormuz saw the seizure on Thursday of a ship anchored off the Unites Arab Emirates coast. Earlier Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced he had quietly visited the UAE during the Israeli-U.S. war with Iran, though the UAE swiftly denied that any secret visit had occurred. Speaking on FRANCE 24, Federico Donelli, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Trieste, says that “Abu Dhabi does not want to appear too much in cooperation with Israel in the face of what Israel is doing in the region”.